Bjergby church/ Bjergby kirke, Vennebjerg herred, Hjørring amt.

Bjergby church, ab. 6 km north of Hjørring. (Google earth)

The highplaced church in Bjergby, which is seen far and wide, has a Romanesque choir and nave with a newer porch to the north. The Romanesque building is in granite ashlars upon a plinth, which in the eastern section has a steep, heavy, bevelled edge and to the west a more flat and narrow. Above the bricked-up south door, which was still open in 1637, is a tympanum with a cross-lamb, a human figure and a bird, which in 1729 lay at the church yard and was regarded as a gravestone. The north door is extended, and its tympanum with a dragon figure is inserted above the door of the porch. From original windows are inside kept the large east window of the choir, and in the south wall of the choir are inserted two round arched monolite lintels. High upon the south wall of the nave is an ashlar with a very big, protruding male head, according to tradition is it the master  builder of the church. Inside are beamed ceilings, and the round choir arch is kept. The walls were remade in the 1700s - the choir gable 1772 with iron initials for Christoffer Rougtved and Else J. Seidelin, the west gable 1782 with initials for Pors Munch and Else J. Seidelin. Upon the lead roof of the church was according to a description from 1735 a strange decoration: a gunner with gun, dog, deer and hare, cast in lead. The building was restored in 1950.

Bjergby church, wikipedia

tympanum, wikipedia.

interior, wikipedia.

The ashlar-bricked communion table was until 1950 covered in a rare Romanesque front in oak, which fields copied the front of the golden altars, it is now placed in the choir. The altarpiece contains parts from a young Renaissance altarpiece, but is much remade in 1782 in late acanthus Baroque with very naturalistic angels in the wings. The old large-field, which had a carved crucifix and painted images of Moses and John the Baptist, was replaced in the late 1800s by a copy of a C.Bloch painting. The chalice is from the late 1600s,  stamped by Chr. P. Lam, Sæby. Brass candelabres in late Baroque. A Romanesque granite font with  semicircular basin upon a truncated pyramid foot. Simple pulpit in Renaissance ab. 1600 with the coat of arms of Ove Lunge and Anne Sehested. New pews from the last restoration in 1950. The bell hangs in a bell frame upon a gravehill inside the dike of the church yard, it was cast in 1867 by B.S. Løw.

gravestones 1) parish priest Niels Pedersen (+ 1624) and two wives; 2) parish clerk Bertel Pederesen (+ 1705) with wife and daughter.

In the parish is in 1662 mentioned the farms Bachen and Lund.  

Listed prehistorics: 8 hills, of which several are large: Vagthøj at Sakstrup; Fællehøj and Skovhøj at Nymark and a hill at Gammeljord; the bellframe at the church yard stands upon a hill. Furthermore two stone Iron Age graves at Bjergby and Sakstrup.
Demolished or destroyed: 31 hills.      

From a hill at Sakstrup was found a gold ring from early Roman period.
In the parish were several finds ( sacrifice and depots) from Stone Age, like from Sakstrup: 7 thick-necked axes, 4 spear heads and 12 scythes, at Snævre a find with 5 thin-necked axes, and one with 5 scythes and an unfinished spear head. In a moor at Varbrogård was found a big number of clay pots from Celtic Iron Age. Stone graves from early Roman period were found at Bjergby and Hvirrekær.

It was told that one of the first parish priests after the reformation, Peter Vognfører, was accused of witchcraft and burnt upon a hill in Mygdal parish.

Names from the Middle Ages and 1600s:  Bjergby (1343 Byærby); Sakstrup (1419 Saxtorp); S. Ørnbøl (1638 Ønbøll); Krattet (1662 Kratted); Dal (1419 Bierbydal); Pilgård (1662 Pill Gård).

See:
photo-collection Bjergby church 

Source: Trap Danmark, Hjørring amt, 1960. 
photo: Google earth and wikipedia.