Ejsing church / Ejsing kirke , Northwest Jutland

17 km northeast of Struer
before 1970: Ginding herred Ringkøbing amt 
Today: Holstebro Kommune, Region Midtjylland

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Ejsing kirke, Wikipedia

Ejsing church is one of Denmarks largest village churches - situated in a pretty landscape between Venø bugt and Hjerl Hede.

The church was built in 1125-1175 but is dominated by late Gothic additions in the 1400s.

The Romanesque kernel is choir and nave in small granite ashlars. A sacristy was added to the choir in the late Gothic period and after this a side nave of four bays. The church stands with five coherent glare gables. The complete addition to the Romanesque church is finished with a porch at the southside and a tall slim tower to the west. The whole church  has a lead roof.

In the southern wall of the nave is inserted an ashlar with six squares, each surrounded by a circle, possibly a corbel. In the same wall is a relief ashlar with a cross in a circle and an inserted  Romanesque gravestone with cross and majuskel-inscription over "Asser son of Tyge Crabbe and fru Ide". At the window of the nave east of the porch is an overwashed relief-ashlar  with a worn human head and an ashlar with a circular groove, which possibly is a stone mason mark.

Ejsing church has some interesting frescoes from the 1500s in the choir vault and the vaults of the southern chapel, and a large coat of arms is painted on the wall of the nave for Mogens Rosenkrantz and wife Sophie Bille of Landting .

Ejsing kirke, Google Earth

The church has a rich inventory. The earliest is the Romanesque baptismal font with many interesting high reliefs and a Latin inscription. A medieval wooden figure from a side alter shows the patron Saint Dionysius. From the same period in the middle of the 1400s origins a choir arch crucifix, where the sidefigures are from the 1700s.

The Baroque inventory is striking. The pulpit with a sounding board is from 1656. It has rich carvings with winding pillars, oval fields and Christ and the Evangelists in reliefs.

The heir of  the manor Landting, Marianne Bernsdorph and her first husband Niels Lillelund gave the church two pompous Rococo-pieces, the altarpiece dated 1764 and the manor-gallery at the southside of the nave from 1765, besides a chandelier from 1766 in the sidenave.

Furthermore is a priest's chair and a parish clerk chair with the image of a singing clerk.

Axel N. Rosenkrantz and Birgitte Knob

The grave memorials are gathered in the western section of the side-nave and in the south chapel. The finest grave stone is in the south chapel, a wellkept repainted figure-stone for Axel Rosenkrantz and wife Berethe Knobsdatter, who both died at Landting in 1551.

The magnificent manor Landting was broken down in 1855 and the land was being outparcelled .
Se description of Landting below.

The church yard is very well kept with many black granite stones from the local stone mason. In Ejsing church yard is buried the last tater in Denmark Stærke Hans (Strong Hans).

 

 

 

The medieval manor Landting

The medieval Landting

The manor Landting was in the Middle Ages placed in a large wet area , a water stream run through it. From the manor was over 100 meter to firm ground to the north. It is still a very moist castle site, which is situated about 1000 meter from Limfjorden. It is not known exactly when the manor Landting was built or by whom, but it happened probably in the 1300s, where the estate belonged to the family Eberstein.

An important part of the earthworks of Landting are kept. Today the tall square castle bank measures 40x 50 m and is surrounded by a deep moat. Outside this is another bank where the long sides are up till 100 meter long. The castle bank was probably the main bank of the castle with a large tower. A dam lead from the castle site to the place where (the ladegård) farm of the manor was situated. Here lies today a farm called Landting.

(The castle bank might be overploughed).

The name Landting, Langetind og Longæting means high tower, which suggest that the manor had a tower from the beginning.


During the unrest years in the beginning of the 1300s Landting belonged to Albert Albertsen Eberstein. He or one of his descendants had taken part of the building of the castle. The owner in 1360 was Henrik Albertsen (Eberstein). His daughter Karen was married to Aage Hedisen Puder, she lived as a widow at Landting in 1422, their daughter was married to Jens Eriksen Banner who died in 1445, whereafter his daughter Mette and her husband ridder Niels Eriksen Gyldenstjerne took over Landting. Niels Eriksen Gyldenstjerne was one of the magnates of the country, and he was in 1456 appointed the king's court master. After his death in 1484 his daughter Inger took over Landting. She was a widow after Niels Timmesen Rosenkrantz with whom she had the son Axel who is mentioned as the owner of Landting in 1505.

Landting painted 1840 by Rasmus Kruse.

In the late Middle Ages was at the nortside of the central castle said to be built a heavy bricked tower of three storeys, maybe a replacement for an earlier tower. It was said that the then owner of Landting Axel Nielsen  Rosenkrantz during Grevens Fejde in 1534 defended his manor against Skipper Clements ship which lay out in Venø bugt shooting at the castle -  which was not damaged much. The rebellious peasants had no success and the rebellion was fought down. After the victory Axel Rosenkrantz accussed the peasants in Hardsyssel for their rebellion -and they were convicted of their rights to own their farms.

In the middle of the 1500s a large stone house was built along the westside of the castle bank in the characteristic architecture of the Renaissance. The house was in three storeys, red washed and with stepped gables. The building master was probably Axel Nielsen Rosenkrantz who lived there with his family. Along the other sides of the bank were built large timbered houses.

The break down of the pretty manor began in the beginning of 1805. The cattle-trading family Windfeldt took over the estate in 1815, and in the middle of the 1800s the rest of the magnificent building were completely gone.

The name Landting was used for the manor farm (ladegården)  as the center in a large agriculture and in 1855 the owner Jørgen Windfeldt let build the present main building.

Source: Danmarks kirker , Niels Peter Stilling. Wikipedia DK.
photo: Wikipedia/Google Earth