Nørholm church / Nørholm kirke, Himmerland

Nørholm kirke(foto Google Earth) Add caption

 











Nørholm Kirke in Aalborg Kommune lies 9 km east of the town Nibe 

Nørholm church is one of the oldest granite churches in North Jutland . It was built ab. 1150 in well-carved ashlars above a bevelled plinth  The Romanesque section consists of choir and nave. The east wall of the choir is partly renewed with supporting pillars. The rebuild took place ab. 1400 in connection to the built of crossvaults in the choir and demolition of the original apse.  Tower and porch were added later. The Gothic additions and the choir gable are whitewashed, while the other ashlar walls stand exposed.

Nøholm kirke , Google earth

The altarpiece has a special attraction. It is a brilliant wood carving in late Gothic from ab. 1510,   richly decorated and gilt, probably from Claus Berg's Odense-workshop. One of the figures on the altarpiece is a kneeling bishop Jens Andersen Beldenak ab. 1468-1537) , who gave the altarpiece to the church.  His coat of arms is held up by a bearded barbarian who is quite different from the  other and very realistic biblical figures in the piece.  The women are dressed in the fashion from the early 1500s, and they are all looking very  healthy with fine red cheeks. Knud den Hellige  (Knud 4.)  is one of the figures in the sidewings, which suggests that the altarpiece came from the Odense workshop.Two wings kept on the National Museum belong supposedly  to the altarpice which then had five wings. The altarpice was possibly made for Sct Knud's kirke in Odense, and it is not clear why it ended up in Nørholm kirke.


The nave has a flat beamed ceiling contrary to the choir which has a Gothic vault. The choir arch has distinctive corbels.  The communion table is bricked. It had earlier a Renaissance front. The altar candelabres are from the 1600s. In the choir are frescoes with winding plants   In the northwall of the choir are built in parts of a late Gothic monstrance cupboard, the only of that kind in Himmerland. In the windows grows a wild plant. The granite baptismal font has very large  sepals. The round foot is newer.

The pulpit was given by Povl Nielsen Kraas and wife Maren Bertelsdatter Kierulf in 1632. According to the upper small fields it was decorated in 1643  The big fields are decorated with the Evangelists. The big fields are divided by hermer with downhanging fruit bunches. Upon the sounding board is a coat of arms of the families Krag and Høeg. The church has two chandeliers and two bells. One bell was made by an anonymous bell caster in 1645, it was given to the church by Niels Krag and wife Jytte Høeg of Trudsholm in gratitude for the peace-closing with Sweden at Brømsebro in 1645. The other and smaller bell was cast by Rasmus Lauridsen in 1585 It was given to the church by Ejler Grubbe of Lystrup.

In the west end of the church is a gallery from the 1700s with apostel-figures

view to Limfjorden/ the country road runs along limfjorden

From other inventory are two epitaphs of aristocratic families, one for  Mads Sørensen and Maren Povlsdatter. In the painting they are together with three daughters and two sons - and three dead babies. The inscription says that the epitaph was set up in 1664 "in his 52th and her 37th year of age" The other epitaph is set up for Søren Bertelsen Kierulf in 1659. It was given by the widow Maren Jensdatter, who was depicted together with her late husband and her new husband Urban Andresen Giedzmann whom she married in 1660. The last mentioned's gravestone of red granite  lies in the church floor in front ot the choir.





See fotos of the church and inventory. 
Start with this link:

Norholm Kirke

then you choose Eksterne Kilder Kort til Kirken
choose foto

source: Danmarks Kirker, Niels Peter Stilling, 2000; Aalborg Stift, kirkehistorie.  
photo: Google Earth

Asperup church / Asperup kirke, Vends herred, Odense amt.

Asperup church, 10 km east of Middelfart

  
       
 Asperup Church was in the Catholic period consegrated to Our Lady. It was originally a Romanesque ashlar church with nave and a choir with apse, built upon a profiled couble plinth. In the north wall are traces of two Romanesque windows. In the late Middle Ages was the choir-bending demolished, and the choir was extended to the east in monk bricks where were also used granite ashlars from the down-broken eastern gable. The choir extension - in which was built an octagonal rib vault -  got the same broadth as the nave, but the old choir's flank-walls were unusually retained, and the western part of the choir is more narrow than the eastern. The new choir gable was decorated with glares and a stair-gable. The big flat-curved eastern window was later bricked up. In the north wall is a double point-arched hiding-niche. In the late Gothic period the western bay of the choir was overvaulted and the choir arch was extended. The nave got two bays of cross vaults. The large west tower and the porch to the south are late Gothic additions, both built in monk bricks with a few ashlars in the wall. A stair house to the south of tower. The high vaulted bottom room of the tower is connected to the nave in a broad pointed arch. In present time was placed heavy supporting pillars at the north side of the nave.

The walled late Gothic communion table has got Renaissance panels;  three original by Knud Snedker from ab. 1580, the rest copied in modern time. The altarpiece is a richly carved bruskbarok-work. from ab. 1650 by Anders Mortensen. In the top piece is inserted a late Gothic crucifixion relief, probably from the altarpiece from 1589. In the middle field an oil painting, a copy after a painting by A. Dorph. Ore-cast candelabres from ab. 1650. A choir-panel with a priest-stool-door from 1641. The Romanesque granite font has a cylindric basin with achantus-vines and relief-carved monsters on the square foot-piece. A large brass baptismal bowl, a south German work from the 1500s with a later engraved year 1618. Above the font - which is placed in a walled portal-niche in Baroque style by the northside of the choir-extension - hangs a Holy Spirit-dove, probably from a Renaissance sounding board. The pulpit from 1580 is a signed work by "Knud Snedeker Baarger i Melfaar", but it was changed in the middle of the 1600s by placing the reliefs and figures of Anders Mortensen, so there is nothing left from Knud Snedker but the door of the pulpit. Sounding board in high Renaissance and a backpanel with simple paintings from the 1700s. Upon the wall of the nave a magnificent late Gothic crucifix-group by Claus Berg in Odense from ab. 1510-1520. The organ-gallery contains parts from a Renaissance gallery. In the choir a large chandelier from the 1600s. At the door an iron-bound "poor man's block". A pretty iron-bound oak door from 1513 by Anders Smed. In the tower room a Madonna- relief from the 1300s and a late Gothic figure, an image of Anna selvtredie. The two church bells are cast by Mathias Bennig in Lübeck 1596 and 1598. In 1589 the church had besides the two large bells also two small mass bells above the choir in "a pretty little spire". 

In Asperup was in the Middle Ages a main farm, which together with several other farms in the parish was conveyed in 1461 to hr. Eggert Frille by bishop in Ribe Henrik Stangeberg.

The Danes had a fortificated place upon Skodshøj during the Swedish war. In Båring skov ("Tokelun")  was found wall work,which according to a legend belongs to a Røverborg (robber's castle).  

Ab. 1450 were in Asperup mentioned the farms Ellegard and Hiortholm, in Båring in 1461 Westersgard and in 1489 in Kærby a house called Røtz toffth. On Båring mark (field) was probably a village Bolby, which is seen in the field-names Boel Bye Riis, .- Bech, - Rue, mentioned in 1682. A field.- name 1682 Tharup Kaars on Kærby Søndermark might suggest that a village Tarup was placed south of Kærby.

Listed prehistorics: a hill close to the beach east of Båring skov.
Demolished. a round dolmen, a stone grave, a stone cist, 8 hills.

village house, Asperup

In the parish, especially by Båring, are several settlements from  late Stone At Vedels have were found several affaldsgruber (waste pits) from Celtic Iron Age. Urn grave sites from Iron Age are known from Jensbjerg south of Asperup and at Båring skov.

Names from the Middle Ages:
Asperup (1423 Aspedorp); Båring (1446 Baringe, Boringe); Kærby (ab. 1350 Kerby); Ringstedgård (1500s Rinngstedth); Hedegård (1547 Hede); Risumgård (1465 Ryswm); Risumlund (1546 Risomlundt).

Source: Trap Danmark Odense amt, 1956. 
photo 2004: grethe bachmann