Borbjerg church / Borbjerg kirke Vestjylland

Borbjerg kirke, Google earth

Borbjerg kirke lies 11 km northeast of Holstebro.

The big, partly whitewashed church in Borbjerg village is marked by rebuild and extensions in the 1400s. The original Romanesque church is built in granite ashlars in the second half of the 1100s. The choir and nave stand upon a bevelled plinth. From Romanesque details are kept both entrances, both with tympanons with a cross in high relief. The men's door is bricked-up while the women's door is in use via the northern porch. Two monolit-lintels from the nave's Romanesque windows are inserted in the cross arms

In the middle of the 1400s the church was extended with cross arms on both sides. They are built in granite ashlars and in the upper sections in monk bricks. Later came the Gothic tower to the west with north-south gables. According to West Jutland custom-the porch belongs like the tower to late Gothic and it is like the tower built in monk bricks.


During the extension of the choir and the cross arms were built Gothic vaults. They are whitewashed with no trace of frescoes. The  nave is covered with a flat beamed ceiling with a striking and well-composed painting from 1913 in winding decorations on red and grey ground.

Borbjerg kirke, Google earth

The altar decoration consists of two very special sections, a frontale on the communion table with wooden reliefs from the middle of 1200s. The front is carved in three oak-planks put together in one. It is a remarkable work and it was probably made by a joiner- master once in the 1200s. He had seen the golden altars in Sahl and Stadil church, but made his own work in wood with multicolours and metaldecorations. After a restoration of the frontale in 1926 it now stands with a powerful gilt. The motifs are biblical and some of the reliefs follows closely a section in the golden altar in Sahl church.

There are three styles in the frontale and the altarpiece, the front of the communion table is Romanesque, the altarpiece is high Gothic alabast placed in a Renaissance frame work.

Borbjerg kirke, wikipedia

The pretty decorated altarpiece is a brilliant carving from the beginning of the 1600s with pillars, angels, hermer and everything else from the Renaissance, but in the frame work is inserted a very unique alabast altarpiece from the beginning of the 1400s. It is an English import-work, probably from Nottingham  Seven reliefs show the legend about Sct. George (DK: Sct Jørgen)
Three pretty wooden figures in the arcade field in the upper section of the altarpiece are from another late Gothic altarpiece from the 1400s.


The priest-chair on the left side of the altar has a funny openwork Baroque relief. "the apple pickers",  Adam and Eve surrounded by vigorous paradisetrees. From the other inventory is a simple granite Romanesque font from the start of the church building. The pulpit is dated 1625 and is decorated with very simple Evangelist-paintings. The church-connection to the manor Rydhave in the annex-parish Ryde north of Borbjerg parish can be seen on some manor pews, and in the tower room is established an open funeral with a distinguished sandstone sarchophagus for kammerjunker Gert Levetzau (+1791) of Rydhave.

A unique Baroque epitaph from 1683 hangs in the southern cross arm. The inscription is a memory of the priest Knud Poulsen's son, Anders Knudsen Borbjerg /1657-1683), who died in Copenhagen before he finished his studies. Two landscape paintings below show a vue over Copenhagen and a motif from France

Borbjerg kirke, wikipedia

The church has a very high situation and is surrounded by a very large church yard, which mirrors the old village's town-like development. The church yard is closely planted and surrounded by big trees. An avenue leads from the porch to the late Medieval portal with a driving gate and small gate.










You can see fotos from church and inventory:

Start with this link


Borbjerg kirke

then choose foto


Source: Danmarks kirker Niels Peter Stilling, 2000
photo: Google earth and wikipedia .