Nørholm church / Nørholm kirke, Himmerland

Nørholm kirke(foto Google Earth) Add caption

 











Nørholm Kirke in Aalborg Kommune lies 9 km east of the town Nibe 

Nørholm church is one of the oldest granite churches in North Jutland . It was built ab. 1150 in well-carved ashlars above a bevelled plinth  The Romanesque section consists of choir and nave. The east wall of the choir is partly renewed with supporting pillars. The rebuild took place ab. 1400 in connection to the built of crossvaults in the choir and demolition of the original apse.  Tower and porch were added later. The Gothic additions and the choir gable are whitewashed, while the other ashlar walls stand exposed.

Nøholm kirke , Google earth

The altarpiece has a special attraction. It is a brilliant wood carving in late Gothic from ab. 1510,   richly decorated and gilt, probably from Claus Berg's Odense-workshop. One of the figures on the altarpiece is a kneeling bishop Jens Andersen Beldenak ab. 1468-1537) , who gave the altarpiece to the church.  His coat of arms is held up by a bearded barbarian who is quite different from the  other and very realistic biblical figures in the piece.  The women are dressed in the fashion from the early 1500s, and they are all looking very  healthy with fine red cheeks. Knud den Hellige  (Knud 4.)  is one of the figures in the sidewings, which suggests that the altarpiece came from the Odense workshop.Two wings kept on the National Museum belong supposedly  to the altarpice which then had five wings. The altarpice was possibly made for Sct Knud's kirke in Odense, and it is not clear why it ended up in Nørholm kirke.


The nave has a flat beamed ceiling contrary to the choir which has a Gothic vault. The choir arch has distinctive corbels.  The communion table is bricked. It had earlier a Renaissance front. The altar candelabres are from the 1600s. In the choir are frescoes with winding plants   In the northwall of the choir are built in parts of a late Gothic monstrance cupboard, the only of that kind in Himmerland. In the windows grows a wild plant. The granite baptismal font has very large  sepals. The round foot is newer.

The pulpit was given by Povl Nielsen Kraas and wife Maren Bertelsdatter Kierulf in 1632. According to the upper small fields it was decorated in 1643  The big fields are decorated with the Evangelists. The big fields are divided by hermer with downhanging fruit bunches. Upon the sounding board is a coat of arms of the families Krag and Høeg. The church has two chandeliers and two bells. One bell was made by an anonymous bell caster in 1645, it was given to the church by Niels Krag and wife Jytte Høeg of Trudsholm in gratitude for the peace-closing with Sweden at Brømsebro in 1645. The other and smaller bell was cast by Rasmus Lauridsen in 1585 It was given to the church by Ejler Grubbe of Lystrup.

In the west end of the church is a gallery from the 1700s with apostel-figures

view to Limfjorden/ the country road runs along limfjorden

From other inventory are two epitaphs of aristocratic families, one for  Mads Sørensen and Maren Povlsdatter. In the painting they are together with three daughters and two sons - and three dead babies. The inscription says that the epitaph was set up in 1664 "in his 52th and her 37th year of age" The other epitaph is set up for Søren Bertelsen Kierulf in 1659. It was given by the widow Maren Jensdatter, who was depicted together with her late husband and her new husband Urban Andresen Giedzmann whom she married in 1660. The last mentioned's gravestone of red granite  lies in the church floor in front ot the choir.





See fotos of the church and inventory. 
Start with this link:

Norholm Kirke

then you choose Eksterne Kilder Kort til Kirken
choose foto

source: Danmarks Kirker, Niels Peter Stilling, 2000; Aalborg Stift, kirkehistorie.  
photo: Google Earth