Hammer church /Hammer kirke, Hedensted Kommune.

Hammer kirke, Hedensted kommune, 20 km west of Horsens foto gb

Hammer church was mentioned in a document for the first time in 1457. The church lies in an open terrain, which slopes from north and west down to the river Gudenaa, which is a part of the border in the small parish. Hammer church is a small church without a tower, the orientation is not east-west like most other churches and it is not a village church. It lies very desolated and nothing indicates that there was ever a village here. It is most likely that it was built by a local magnate. The history of Hammer church is connected to a nearby, earlier main farm Hammergård, which lies  1/2 km east of the church. .
 
The church was probably built in the late 1100s. It was consecrated to Maria Magdalena and belonged to the Århus bishop during the Middle Ages. At the reformation it was like most other churches taken over by the Crown, which entrusted the income to the parish at the Chapter of Århus. Latest in 1553 Hammer church became annex to Linnerup church

During the Swedish wars in the 1600s there were plunders by the foeign troups (both enemies and allied)  all over Jutland. The parish of Hammer suffered much under this and many farms were destroyed. When Århus Chapter was closed in 1666 the Crown took over the church once more until 1745, where it was transferred to the nearby farm Hammergård. The owner of Hammergård announced in 1809 that the church was now taken over by the parish. In 1908 the church became formally freehold, and in 1911 it became annex to Tørring church as it is today. After this the parish belonged to Haderslev stift since 1971 (.Hedensted Kommune)

The original church is built in travertine with a cernel of field stone. Later were probably in 1400s used monk bricks for a thorough restore. Once in the 1700s was built a thatched porch, but it was replaced in 1867, and the present porch was built. There was possibly earlier a burial chapel on the northside of the choir. The roof is red tiles, earlier it was a lead roof.  The wooden ceiling in the choir was inserted in 1862 after the earlier late medieval vault was ready to be destrcuted. The triumph arch was probably extended when the vault was built.

 

 

 

Hammer kirke, foto gb.

The small church is marked by inventory from the 1800s: pews from 1827 altarpiece from 1870 and pulpit from 1892. 

 

The altarpiece is from the 1870s - in the middle field is a copy of  Thorvaldsen's Christ-figure. The two painted figures are David with the harp and Moses with the tablets of the Law, painted after two statues in Vor Frue Kirke in Copenhagen. The altarpiece was repaired in 1963.

 

Altar rails from 1899 in cast iron and polished beech wood. Pews from ab. 1857. Gallery in connection to organ. 

 

The pulpit is a gift  to the church from Mads Christensen and Peder Christian Madsen in 1892,  and it replaced an earlier pulpit from 1735. The pulpit has carved biblical reliefs made by a local carver N. Fjeldskov  The sounding board is the same work as the pulpit  The entrance to the pulpit is a bricked staircase. 

 

The Romanesque font is probably the original from the building of the church . It has a greyish basin and a reddish foot. The baptismal dish in brass is from the beginning of the 1900s. The jar in brass is from 1863.

 

Silver chalice and disc from 1758 made by J.N. Brosbøll, Vejle. Altar candelabres in brass from the beginning of the 1600s. Menorah candelabre from 1950s. Two chandeliers ab. 1925 (Renaissance-copies). Church ship "Marie" from ab. 1953, a threemaster without sails but with Dannebrog.

 

the beginning of Gudenaa, near Hammer church, foto gb

Three carved figures have been kept from the original altarpiece from the 1400s: A Throne of Grace and Maria Magdalena with the ointment jar and Barbara with the tower.   Besides these three figures is kept a wooden figure of the Virgin Mary from 1520. The child is missing.

 

The bell is from 1829 cast by Meilstrup in Randers, it was originally meant for Tørring church and came to Hammer church ab. 1910.

In a cupboard in the choir were since 1877 an Epee, spurs and a coffin plate from Ditlev Trappaud who was konferensråd and amtmand over Dronningborg, Silkeborg and Mariager Amt and the owner of Tvillum. A long inscription tells about him and the family's sorrow by his death.  Trappaud was also the owner of Hammergård. He died at Tvillum 22 August 1768.

 The church yard is surrounded by stone dikes. The bell hangs in a bell frame at the western gable. 

 Source: National Museum, København; Folkekirken, Tørring og Hammer sogne.

Albæk church / Albæk kirke, Randers amt.

Albæk church, ab. 5 km northeast of Randers.

Albæk parish , Støvring herred, Randers amt. 

The church in Albæk has a choir and nave, a tower to the west and a porch at the south side. The choir and nave are from the Romanesque period, built in limestone ashlars upon a plinth with a bevel and above is a round arched frieze, which is only kept in the choir, and lesenes at the corners. The walls were later partly rebuilt, especially in the nave, and a corniche in small red bricks was walled on. From original windows are one in the choir gable, one in the north side of the choir and two in the south side of the nave brought to light in a thorough restoration of the church 1937-38; most of these windows have kept the old wooden frame in the lighting. The north door is bricked up and partly destroyed by a newer window. The south door is in its original place, but has later been remade with a flat curve. A column base, which earlier was in the porch, might indicate that the church had a column portal.

The choir arch is kept inside. The choir, which is remarkably awry in relation to the axis of the nave, got a cross vault in the late Gothic period. The broad western tower is also from the late Gothic period. It is built in blank wall of monk bricks with a vaulted bottom room, which opens to the nave in a round arched arcade and with a pyramid roof, where the weather vane's year 1750 refers to a repair. The whitewashed porch is also from the late Middle Ages with permanent bricked benches and a high stepped gable. The nave had in the Renaissance period got a flat curved barrel vault with stikkapper, resting on wall pillars. (a stikkappe is a lesser vault-piece, cutting into the vault above a door or window).

In the restoration 1938 were found some late Gothic frescoes, some of them coat of arms of the families Bølle, Skade, Banner. It seems that the walls of the nave were covered in frescoes, a few were found at the southside: the saints Elisabeth and Katharina. According to the coat of arms the frescoes seem to origin from ab. 1400.

The bricked communion table with a simple oak cross is from 1938. The earlier altar painting from 1864 hangs upon a wall of the nave. The pulpit, with a carved year 1619, has pillars with decoration- and arcade fields in the original decorations, which was re-discovered in 1937-38; in the fields are fru Kristence Viffert's coat of arms. A Romanesque granite font with double lions and a baptismal dish with the year 1624. Upon the wall of the nave hangs a memorial of herredsfoged ( bailiff) Peder Nielsen Østrup (+ 1653) and wife. A door wing with old mounts between nave and porch. A church ship, the brig "Peters Minde" from ab. 1878.

Buggesholm belonged earlier to Dronningborg rytterdistrikt (military ), but was bought for private ownership in 1766. In 1870 it was bought by Søren N. Skjødt of  Skjødtsminde, whose family has owned it since. In 1932 it was taken over by Niels Skjødt.   

 In Østrup was once a bishop's manor. It was probably here the Århus bishop Svend in 1191 got the sickness helsot (plague). Ab. 1205 the Århus bishop confirmed that one third of the tiende ( a tax)  from the bishop's manor in Østrup had to go to hr. Gødes præbende ( to the priest), which pope Innocens III confirmed in 1207. Several bishops have issued letters from the manor. Some of the vasals at Østrup were: 1460-69 hr. Niels Christensen (vinranke-Munk), who was the brother-in-law of bishop Jens Iversen (Lange); 1478-79 his son Jens Nielsen (Munk); 1491-1537 Jakob or Joakim Lykke, a sister's son of bishop Eiler (Bølle) in Århus: After this Østrup came to the Crown, it was endowed in 1537 to Mourids von Herlug and was in 1547 transferred to Dronningborg vasalry.

countryside, Albæk

Voldstedet, the castle bank of Østrup lies almost in the middle of Albæk village, cut through by the socalled Borggyde (a small street). West of this lies a four sided low castle islet, which moat is kept to the north and west. East of the street Borggyde is a lower placed square where the National Museum in 1913 did some test excavations on a foundation of a cellar. There was a large square room and lesser out-buildings to the north and west, all built in ashlars and raw granite boulders and monk bricks in the late Middle Ages. There was also a building once at the castle islet, but the foundation was almost gone since a farm was built on the place.  

Niels Jonsen of Albæk is mentioned in 1374.

There are no listed prehistorics in the parish, but there was a round dolmen, a long dolmen ( Stenhøj) and a hill (Grønhøj), all under Østrup manor.

At the eastern end of Østrup forest is a kitchen midden.



Source: Trap Danmark, Randers amt, 1963

Translation: grethe bachmann
Photo Albæk 2009,2011: grethe bachmann