Hjerk church/ Hjerk kirke, Harre herred, Viborg amt.

Hjerk church, about 16 km northwest of Skive.

 
 Hjerk parish, Harre herred, Viborg amt.
  
The church in Hjerk has a choir and a nave, a tower to the west and a porch to the south. The choir and nave are from the Romanesque period in granite ashlars upon a bevelled plinth. Upon the north side are kept to bricked-up windows and traces of a third. The north door with a cross-decorated tympanum is bricked-up.  The southside has been rebuilt, but the south door is kept. The very tall Romanesque choir arch has profiled kragsten. The choir and nave have a beamed ceiling. The tower and the porch are late Gothic addititions, both mostly in ashlars, which might origin either from a Romanesque tower or from one of the demolished churches of the district. Several ashlars -many curved - lies on the church yard. The upper section of the tower with gables north-south, is in monk bricks. The tower room has a cross vault and opens towards the nave in a round arch. The partly whitewashed church is roofed with lead. A restoration took place in 1953-54. In the tower room were found frescoes, among others two large pictures of saints (Sct. Jørgen =Georg and Sct. Morten = Martin). They are from the period close to the reformation.

The bricked communion table is surrounded by a panel from the late 1500s. The altarpiece is in Renaissance with two carved coat of arms for Jacob Høeg of Trudsholm (he was vasal at Skivehus 1596-1602) and wife Lisbeth Sehested. The altarpiece - which mid field has a painting - is restored with new decorations in 1954. An altar picture from ab. 1850 hangs now in the tower room (1962). Altar chalice from 1691 with the stamp of royal silversmith Marcus Resenhof and the coat of arms of  Wilhelm Marselius baron of Gyldenkrone. Altar candelabres from the first half of the 1600s. A Romanesque granite font with many close placed round sticks upon the basin. Upon the loft a very destroyed late Gothic crucifix. A Renaissance pulpit with a decoration from 1954. New, closed pews. Bell from 1507, cast by Peder Hansen in Flensborg with inscription. Below the choir was a burial. A Romanesque gravestone with two cross lies in front of the door of the porch.

 


















News from Hjerk church: 
There was a restoration of the church in 1999 where the colours in the church benches were attuned to the special 1770s-painting in the altarpiece. The porch was restored and here are exhibitions each year by local artists. Hjerk church and parish have some very good websites which are easy to find. They tell stories from the parish  (in Danish) and show pictures of from the exhibitions. (source: the parish)  


Bajlumgård was in 1524 owned by Niels Høeg (Banner) of Eskær. In 1594 Steen Brahe exchanged the half of B. to Ludvig Munk and Erik Lykke. The last mentioned's daughter Johanne Lykke (+ 1635) owned it in 1623, but in 1637 Gunde Rostrup sold B. to Jørgen Høeg (Banner) of Todbøl (+ 1656), in 1663 it was owned by Erik Blik of Holmgård, who in 1664 deeded it to Andreas Rhode, whose brother Rudolph Rhode in the 1670s resided here. It came later to their sister's son-in-law High Court Judge Christoffer Bartholin (+ 1714); in 1688 B. is mentioned as "a poorly place and not quite close to being a farm", in 1689-91 it was leased to Chr. Gjedde of Skivehus; Chr. Bartholin complemented the farm in 1700, and his heirs sold it 1727 to their brother-in-law captain Peter Fürst (+ 1732), whereeafter it the same year was sold to his brother-in-law Selio Müller of Lønborggård, who in 1740 sold it to Peder Panderup. He sold it in 1744 to Niels Bang, who 1755 sold it without estate to Niels Stefansen Tang (+ 1789), whose son Stefan Tang owned it till his death in 1827. In an auction after him it was bought in 1830 by Chr. Gjørup in Skive, but in 1836 it belonged to Jens Nielsen Ladefoged  - in 1841 to his son Jens Tang (+ 1865), then to his son Christian Tang (+ 1904), whose son Niels Tang in 1909 sold B. to a consortium, which in 1911 sold it to Peter Hansen Knudsen, whose son Henning Knudsen took it over in 1959.

Vium mølle (mill) was by hr. Niels Nielsen in 1400 deeded to Stig Munk.   

Listed prehistorics: 6 hills among, those Store Tophøj east of Bajlum and a hill southwest of the church, both large.
Demolished or destroyed: 35 hills.

 In Hjerk nor (nor = land tongue) was found an important settlement from the Ertebølle culture and a kitchen midden in the edge of the beach.

Names from the Middle Ages: Over Hjerk (1375 Hernick, 1488 Hyerk, 1494 Offuerhierck); Neder Hjerk (1494 Neyræhierck); Vium (1400 Vyvm); Bajlum (1420 Bodum, 1474 Balum, 1546 Baylom); Gedeløkke (1546 Giedeløche); Bajlumgård (1524 Balom(m)gardt); Viumgård (1500s Wium gard); Vium vandmølle (1463 Viiummøll).


Source: Trap Danmark, Viborg amt, 1962.

photo: borrowed from Google earth 2013, gb