Sæby church/ Sæby kirke, Harre herred, Viborg amt.

The pretty little church in Sæby lies upon a hillside east of Glyngøre and with a view to Grynderup sø (the new lake). It has a Romanesque choir and nave and a new porch to the south. The original building-sections are in granite ashlars upon a bevel plinth. Both doors are preserved, the north door is bricked-up. Several Romanesque windows were re-opened in a restoration 1951-52. The finely proportioned choir-arch has profiled kragsten. The inside of the church has a flat, beamed ceiling. The porch in yellow bricks was rebuilt in 1951. The church has blank walls and a tiled roof. At the east gable is a timbered bell-tower.

dike and old trees

two bells in timbered bell-tower.

view to Grynderup sø

The front of the communion table is a joinery in Renaissance style with paintings from 1656, the table itself was re-newed in 1951. In the carved Renaissance altarpiece were in 1952 inserted paintings by Ingolf Røjbæk. An old Last Supper-painting hangs in the nave. Furthermore is in the church kept a section of altar paintings from 1854. The altar chalice was given by vasal at Skivehus, Ebbe Jacobsen Ulfeldt and fru Mette Grubbe 1650. New altar candelabres. A Romanesque granite font in West Jutland type (thybo). A new baptismal dish. A pulpit in pine-wood with infills of folding work and carved year 1593, decorations from 1656, repaired 1952.  New pews. Two early Gothic figures are now kept in the National Museum. A late Gothic bell with unreadable signs.

In the parish was some sand drift which according to Pont. Atlas began ab. 1747 , but has stopped long ago.

While digging peat in a bog at Grynderyp were in 1842 found 21 coins, of which: 13 socalled brakteats from Hedeby (Haithabu) from the 900s and 7 Arab dirhemes from 892-907;  besides a small silver bar and 18 pearls in rock crystal, glass and alike.

Listed prehistorics: 4 hills
Destroyed or demolished: 27 hills.

Two kitchen middens in the northern part of the parish. In a moor at Grynderup were found two necklaces from Bronze Age.   

Names from the Middle Ages:
Sæby (1402 Sæby); Grynderup (1424 Grundrupp, 1468 Gryndorp); Holmgårde (1474 Hollom gordt); Snabe (1547 Svob, 1683 Snabe); Kærgård (1524 Kiergardt); Bækkegård (after 1448 Bæksgaard, 1684 Gløngbechgaard).

Source: Trap Danmark, Viborg amt, 1962.


photo: Sæby kirke september 2012: grethe bachmann