Tapdrup church/ Tapdrup kirke, Nørlyng herred, Viborg amt.

Tapdrup church, ab. 5 km east of Viborg.

Tapdrup parish, Nørlyng herred, Viborg amt. 

Tapdrup church is a Romanesque ashlar building, which refers to the building master school at Viborg cathedral. (see photo of Viborg cathedral below). The oldest section has choir with apse and nave, where a western gable joins a later built tower. The building rests upon a bevelled plinth. The wallwork of the northside was seemingly rebuilt in the 1500s and appears now in raw field stones, while the southside of the nave is partly rebuilt 1910-11. From original details is a kept a window in apse and the broad, magnificent south portal with triple arch form and free-standing columns. The similar flatcurved north portal is in its original place, but was re-bricked with monk bricks in the late Middle Ages and was then bricked-up. From late Gothic period origins the gable of the choir with bricked trappekamme ( steps)  and the tower, which at the bottom is built in re-used ashlars from the west gable and above in monk bricks, with steep gables north-south and which bottom room functions as a porch. a royal letter from 15 july 1549 which mentiones the repari of the church refers probably to the rebuild of the north wall. When the church much later, in 1902, got an organ, which gallery blocked the south door, the access to the church must have been placed at the tower room, which portal seemingly is from the period around the change of the century.

The apse has inside a halfcupolar vault, while choir and nave have a beamed ceiling, which in the 1700s was decorated with cloud formations. The Protestantic triptych was according to inscription given in 1613 by fru Berte Kaas, improved and decorated in 1702 by High Court Judge Hans Lange of Asmild; in the middle field a painting from the 1700s ( an earlier painting is now kept behind the altar). Upon the altar chalice are the initials of Hans Lange and wife Mette Mariche Broberg and the year 1693. Upon one of the late medieval altar candelabres is carved S. Nicolaus. In the choir is from wall to wall an altar railing from the 1700s, here is also a thurible from the 1200s.Most of the wooden inventory in the church is from 1788, carved in rural Rococo, like the pulpit, the font (with a sounding board) and the pews with doors and gables. The choir arch is extended with monk bricks, and above it hangs a late medieval crucifix. In the choir is a large and pretty gravestone for Frantz Iversen Dyre (+ 1569) and wife. In the closed cellar under the choir rests Corfitz Ulfeldt, killed in the battle at Kolbergheide 1644.


Skovsgård might be the farm by the same name, which in 1402 was owned by Johannes Eskildsen (Krumpen). Later it was probably owned by the væbner Stig Nielsen, who in 1479 wrote himself of Tapdrup, then by Frantz Iversen Dyre, who likewise wrote himself of S. and T. He died in 1569 at Dyreholm, which probably refers to the same farm. When his widow Kirsten Mogensdatter Kaas (Mur-Kaas) died childless after 1573, came S. to her brother's son Herman Kaas (+ ab. 1613), who in 1580 is written of "Thoberup", but in 1591 and several times later of S. His sons too are written of S.: Niels (1613), Christen (1613), Frantz (1613 and 1621) Eggert (1618) and Stalder Kaas 1621. In 1625 the farm belonged to Hans Lindenov's widow Else Juel (+ ab. 1627) and then to her brother's children, Hans and Anders lindenov in 1638, who were inherited by their mother, Else Thott, married 2. to Corfitz Ulfeldt (+ 1644). She left the farm to her sister, Margrethe Andersdatter Thott, from whom it at once in 1652 was sold to hr. Anders Bille as a pay of Else Thott's debt. He exchanged it in 1653 with some state to the Crown, from which it in 1672 was laid out to Villum Lange of Asmildkloster. In 1807 Henrik Muhle Hoff of Asmildkloster deeded it and 8 houses to C. F. Erhardi,  but in 1810 it was at an auction together with Tapdrup parish's church and half king's taxes sold to Chr.Kjelleup (+ 1819).

Later owners: Johannes Iver Bruun 1830; Th. Davidsen, E. Lund, 1841; J H Lytthans 1846; Joh. F. Petersen 1849; Thalbitzer 1857; H. Ch. Thalbitzer 1870; Nohr 1887; I. Jørgensen 1904; Harald de Neergaard 1917; P.D. Thomsen 1911.

Listed prehistorics: 9 hills, of which several are large: the two Rishøje west of and Store Mandshøj north of Tapdrup, Kokærhøj and a hill north east of the village, the two Kvathøje and Storhøj in Østerskov.   

In a moor in the Nørreådalen (river valley) were found 14 gold bracteats and 27 glass pearls.

Names from the Middle Ages: Tapdrup (1479 Tapptrvp); Thisted (1497 Thistedtt); Skovsgaard (1664 Schouffs Gaard); Spanggård (1664 Spang Gaard); Subæk Mølle (1664 Sulbech Mølle, 1683 Sulbechmølle, Surbech mølle).

 

Viborg cathedral

Source: Trap Danmark, Viborg amt, 1962.

photo: Tapdrup church, borrowed from Google earth, gb
photo: Viborg cathedral: grethe bachmann