Helstrup church/ Helstrup kirke, Middelsom herred, Viborg amt.

Helstrup church, ab. 8 km west of Randers.

Helstrup parish, Middelsom herred, Viborg amt.


The small church in Helstrup without a tower lies surrounded by old boulder dikes upon a bank with a steep fall to south and west. The original sections are the Romanesque choir and nave in granite ashlars upon a bevelled plinth, and the bottom section of a late medieval western tower and a newer porch at the north side. From original details are kept a bricked-up circular window in the choir gable, a small untouched Romanesque window in the north side of the choir and a now bricked-up window in the north side of the nave. In the south wall of the choir is the vague trace of a socalled leprosy window, now partly covered by a large 1600s tombstone. All traces of the south door have disappeared, while the north door - with insertions of round sticks and bevelled consoles below a granite lintel - is still in use. A west tower from late Middle Ages, built in granite ashlars at the bottom and bricks it the top -  was later, before 1768, broken down till the height of the nave. The wallwork is partly renewed with small stones, the year in iron anchers shows this in the western gable: 1843 and the initials O.F. Rebuildings were made in 1875-77, possibly a reconstruction of the ashlars in the southern side wall. Inside the church, which has beamed ceilings, was the choir arch extended.

Upon a bricked communion table stands  a Neo Gothic oak frame from ab. 1840-50 and a contemporary altar painting. A Romanesque lion font with foliage. A small Netherland baptismal dish from the 1600s. Pulpit in Renaissance with carved year 1609 has Ionic columns and decorations - in the fields is inserted a star pattern. The pews, mostly from 1952, have kept two gables with the initials I.L.S. and A.P.D. and the year 1699. The bell without insctiption is in a frame upon the church yard, it is from the late Middle Ages. In a restoration in 1952 the tower room was connected to the nave in a pointed arcade.


Velbyrdig mand (Honourable man) Las Jonsen of Helstrup is mentioned in 1453 and 1455. From 1475 is mentioned Johan Pors in H. In 1482 he pawned a farm in H. to the bishop in Århus, but lived also in 1483 in H. It was probably also he, who as Pors in H. is mentioned up till 1488. In 1750 Helstrupgård was sold by Hans Adolf Høeg to manager Chr. Kollin.

In a groove between the hills and the meadow east of the road from Helstrup to the south is the sacred spring Helligvæld. 

There are no listed prehistorics in the parish but there were a stone cist, 6 hills and a grave from early Roman Iron Age, one of the hills Jabildshøj was large. In the stone cist were found an axe, a clay pot and several amber pearls.

Names from the Middle Ages: Helstrup (1216 Helfsdorp, 1453 Hælstrop).


News from Helstrup church: The church was restored in 2007, and the old altar piece was replaced by a new altar decoration made by the artist Dynes Fuglsang from Risskov, Århus.


Source: Trap Danmark, Viborg amt, 1962.

photo: borrowed from Google earth, 2013, gb.