Hinge Church, Hinge parish, 12 km north of Silkeborg
(earlier: Lysgård herred, Viborg amt).
Hinge church lies north of Hinge Sø at the village Hinge. The Romanesque sections of Hinge church: apse, choir and nave built in monk bricks are strongly marked by building-works. The church is one of the earliest brick-churches in Denmark, built in the middle of the 1200s, and possibly built by the monks from the nearby Alling Kloster. Time and weather have worn out the bricks - the original bricks are most visibly seen in the eastern part of the church with a piece of the original bevelled plinth and a bricked-up window in the apse. The tower was built in 1679 and restored in 1779, a restoration arranged by J.A. Fischer of Allinggård and Grauballegård. The bottom room of the tower functions as a porch, and the tower has a pyramid-spire with a weather vane(with year 1779). The tower is white-washed, while the rest is in blank wall with red tiled roofs.
The apse- and choir arch are rebated and have bevelled corbels. The nave had originally an open roof-stool, but ab. 1530 the church had built-in a flat beamed ceiling. At the same time the frescoes upon the triumph-wall were washed over, they were rediscovered in 1980 and restored in 1984. There are three friezes: the upper and best preserved frieze shows the Passion of Christ in six sections, the second frieze shows the Holy family and the Worship of the Kings, the third frieze shows Paulus. The frescoes were restored by the National Museum. In the frescoes is every violent scene framed . In the thorn-crowning the executioners use all their strength to place the thorn-crown upon the head of Christ. One executioner has a wooden leg, which underlines his negative character
At a restoration in 1952-53 the communion table and the altar rails were moved. The altarpiece is Renaissance, given by hr. Hans Sørensen in 1604, probably from the same workshop as the pulpit. Pewter candelabres, given in 1677 with initials P N S G above M I D. A Romanesque granite font with vertical rope-decoration on the basin and foot like the fonts of the Gødvad-group. A newer baptismal brass bowl and a baptismal pewter jar from ab. 1800. A newer metal crucifix hangs in the choir arch. The pulpit was given by hr. Hans Sørensen and wife Karine Melchiorsdatter, 1612, with 1700s label-paintings. The sounding board was given 1655 by hr. Christen Erichsen and wife Else Hansdatter (restored 1932). Renaissance pews . A small Baroque chandelier in the choir given by Mette Hermansen (+ 1918), two in the choir given 1927 by farmer Jakob Overby. A church bell, given 1761 by Chr. Fischer of Allinggård, cast in Viborg by Caspar König . Many grave memorials, epitaphs, stone tablets. Upon the north wall hangs an epitaph with two fields, paid for by Søren Michelsen (+1597) and wife and by Hans Sørensen (+ 1632) and wife. Hans Sørensen was a brother of the priest Erik Sørensen, whom Steen Steensen Blicher described in his short story: "Præsten i Thorning". At the churchyard is a Romanesque granite grave stone with a relief cross, and a copy of the stone where Hans Tausen held his first Lutheran sermon. The original stone is now at Viborg Museum.
Frescoes, violent scenes from the Passion
Names in the Middle Ages and 1600s:
Hinge (1333 Hængy); Astrup (*1453 Astrup); Frausing (*1231 Fraxing); Hedehuse (1683 Astrup HeeHuus, 1688 Heed Huuset); Frausinggård (1552 Frausing gord).
The outlawed Peder Jacobsen owned ab. 1300 estate in Hinge. Torsten Mikkelsen of Hinge is mentioned in 1333.
In Hinge lived for many years a "klog mand" (healer), Mads Weis, + 1839, who achieved jus practicandi and established a kurhus (health resort) for people who suffered from leg injury etc.
Listed prehistorics: 3 hills, of which two are in the forest.
Demolished or destroyed: 10 hills.
In a meadow at Hinge Sø was found a large-tooth bone harpoon from early Stone Age, and in Vesterkær a wooden animal-trap, probably from prehistoric time.
Source: Trap Danmark, Viborg amt, 1962; Axel Bolvig, Danmarks Kalkmalerier, 2002.
photo Hinge kirke: grethe bachmann