Fjelsø Church / Fjelsø kirke - Himmerland.

 Vesthimmerlands Kommune, Viborg Stift.

Fjelsø church, north of Viborg.

Fjelsø church is located high in the northern section of the Fjelsø village. It is a Romanesque parish church built in the 1100s. The Romanesque style is characterized by the large carved ashlars, the massive walls and the low round arches above doors and windows.  The original building consisted only of nave and choir until the 1400s where a Gothic tower was built, and later a porch in 1847.


In earlier times were two doors - a south door for the men and a north door used by the women. The north door is bricked up, but it is easy to see where it was.
In the brick-up section outside is a male head carved in a stone in the wall. A male head like this is carved in the south wall of the choir.
It is not known why they are placed  there.   
                                                         

 My theory.: since the heads are turned upside down it might not be their first placement. They were probably valued from the beginning for some reason, but later considered heathen by the new religion, Christianity -  and the Catholic priests wanted to remove their "witchcraft" or humiliate their importance by turning them upside down.

church dike, fjelsø

Inventory: The altar table was originally just a large carved block of granite. This granite block is still in the church, but it is now enheightened and covered by wooden panels. The paintings in front of the altar were made in the beginning of the 1700s. Sections of the altarpiece goes back to the 1500s, but the main part is from the 1700s,  where it was given to the church by Christen Sørensen.  Two altar paintings  were painted in 1895 by Luplau Jansen

A chalice and a disc for the communion were given to the church in 163? (the last number is not visible) by the parish priest Jens Nielsen Brasen, whose name is also engraved in the candlelabres with the date 1666. On the foot of the candlelabres is also the name Jens Poulsen. It was said that he gave them to the church as a penance for some some damge he made by negligent burning of some heaths in Vesterbølle.


The present altar chalice and wafer box were given by parson Hans Nielsen Højgaard in the years 1916 - 1943.

The baptismal font is granite and probably as old as the church itself. The baptismal dish is new, but an earlier dish from the 1700s hangs on the wall of the choir.
The oldest sections of the pulpit origin from the 1500s with picture fields in two storeys. The decorations were made in 1736.

church dike, Fjelsø

The priest tablet is new and was made in 1944. Here are names of the parish priests of the church since the reformation. The names before the reformation are not known.
The ship model "Nordstjernen" hangs in the nave. It is borrowed from Gedsted church.

The altar carpet is from November 1983 and designed by the teachers Ruth and Holger Møllebjerg, Hvalpsund kirke, where it was placed earlier.

The church bell without inscription  is from the end of the 1200s. .

Sources: Booklet of Fjelsø kirke by Flemming Kloster. Erik Horskjær ( red). De danske Kirker, Gads forlag 1968. 

 

Landscape in Himmerland.

photo August 2015: grethe bachmann 

north of Fjelsø lies a beautiful rosepark in Aalestrup, Den jyske Rosenpark.