Bække church / Bække kirke, Anst herred, Ribe amt.

       
Bække church has a choir, nave and western tower - and a porch to the north. the nave is from the romanesque period in granite ashlars upon a profiled doublt plinth. An original window is kept as walled-in window to the north, while the southern windows are from a rebuild in late Middle Ages or Renaissance. The original doors are both walled-in, a thympanum from the south door is inserted in the south wall of the choir.   The choir arch is preserved with kragsten, while it seems that the choir was rebuilt in the late Middle Ages.  The walls are raw granite boulder, monk bricks and a few ashlars.  In the gable are three round arched flat niches.The porch is in bricks and has a curved Renaissance gable with flat niches; it is used as a tool room.  The tower was built in 1922  from voluntary contributions, and the main entrance is in the northside. The church is partly white-washed, and the roof is lead and tiles. The choir has a flat board ceiling and the nave a board ceiling with rosettas, similar to Anst church, but simpler.

tympanon

lapidarium

Upon the wall of the nave were found traces of frescoes. The walled communion table is framed by an antepedium. The altar piece was given by Johanne Sørensen, née Prüsse, in 1941; a painting in a carved frame. Heavy altar candelabres in late Gothic shape. The monolite granite font with a truncated cone-foot is probably Romanesque. South German baptismal bowl with Habsburg-coat of arms from ab. 1550. A small carved crucifix at the pulpit is probably from after the Middle Ages. Richly carved pulpit from 1638 with biblical reliefs ; The sounding board is partly re-newed and with a new decoration. The nave has high wall-panels in Renaissance-style. The pews are from about the same time, the late 1500s; the parish clerk stool has a late Gothic look. An organ-gallery is furnished above the tower room. The bell was cast by Adam Nielsen in Kolding in the year 1600. Some saint-figures from the church are kept at the museum Koldinghus.

forvitret mandshoved på mur

Skødegård belonged earlier to Vorbasse sogn (parish) and was transferred to Bække sogn in 1584, when the king established sheep-breeding, and it was also a hunting farm. In 1634 the sheep were given up, and S. became a copyhold farm under Koldinghus castle. In the times of the Pontoppidan's Atlas there was still the ruin of a royal hunting house by the lake.

runesten ved kirken

In the parish was earlier a large stone, Svingelands- or Svinglingstenen, which was cleaved in the late 1700s (brought to nørholm and made into stairs and trough). An old legend from Saxo says that Harald Blåtand was about to bring the stone to his mother Thyra's hill in Jelling, but gave up when a man gave him an answer to his question, if he had ever seen a man draw a larger burden - and the man said that he had recently seen his son Svend draw all the kingdom of Denmark to himself. burialis 

Klebæk høje

                                                                             

Listed prehistorics: A long dolmen with two demolished rooms and 14 hills, of which 7 , all small, are in a group north east in the parish.  Furthermore Bækkemonumentet or Klebæk høje (1638 Karls legoms høye): two hills and a row of large raised stones, of which one has a rune-inscription;  new examinations have shown that it is actually an impressive stone-ship with the rune stone in one end and one of the hills in the other, since one row of stones have been removed, but the holes from the stone-places are traceable.

Demolished or destroyed: Two long dolmens and 117 hills. in the demolished Høghøj were two flint daggers, a slate-jewelry, 3 amber pearls, a pålstav (war axe) and a gold-spiral ring.


The rune stone in the Bækkemonumentet is 1,25 m tall; it is from the viking period and has the inscription: Revne and Tobbe made these kuml after their mother Vibrog. ( Revne og Tobbe gjorde disse kumler efter deres moder Vibrog). Another rune stone, now upon a small hill between Bække church and the road, was found in 1810 in the church dike; its inscription is: Tue, Ravn's descendant, and Funden and Gnyble, those three made Thyre's hill. (Tue, Ravn's ætling, og Funden og Gnyble, de tre gjorde Thyres høj).

In Kragelund, east of  Ribe-Vejle country road, are listed traces of a road.

Names from the Middle Ages:
Bække (1231 Bæcky, 1330-48 Bekky); Kragelund (1400t. Kraglundt, Offuer Kragelundt, 1499 Nedher Kraghelwndh); Asbo (1462 Asphowet); Skødegård (1400t.?Skiøde, 1562 Skøde, 1584 Skødegaard).

Source: Trap Danmark, Ribe amt 1965.

photo Bække/Klebæk høje 2003/2007: grethe bachmann