Sæby church , Vendsyssel, Northeast Jutland

Sæby old watermill

The small  town Sæby lies in an idyllic landscape by the mouth of Sæby river  at Kattegat Maybe the Vikings were the first who lived here in a small village. In 1450 was  a small church was built near the sea. Both the town and the nearby manor Sæbygård belonged to the rich Børglum bishopric -  and in the 1460s the bishop Jep Friis established a Carmelite kloster by the church. The kloster was inagurated to Sct. Maria and the town was called Mariested, a name which was changed into Sæby after the reformation. The bishop Stygge Krumpen provided the municipal rights for the town in 1524.

Sæby church is the prettiest small town church in North Jutland. The church was built in ab. 1400. The Gothic church was originally a parish church, but in 1460 a Carmelite-kloster was established in Sæby on the initiative of the Børglum bishop Jep Friis. The kloster buildings were built on the northside of the paris church, and the church was at the same time in the years after 1460 extended to the east with an access to the kloster. To the westwas built a tower. The long church (54 m) but narrow church was extended with a stately south chapel which opens towards the nave with arcades and with a great light from the windows. The main entrance is to the west in the tower which vaulted underroom is a front hall.



The frescoes are among the most important in the district. The earliest at the north wall  are from the first part of the 1400s. The eastern vault of the nave and the choir vault are completely covered by frescoes from ab. 1500. They are attributed to the socalled Sæby workshop which artworks also  are found in Vrå church and in Budolfi church in Aalborg. The southern chapel is completely covered by winding ornaments, only the south west vault has original paintings  from ab. 1525, while the other vaults are repainted in 1888. Two coat of arms are also seen for the last bishops of Vendsyssel, Niels Stygge Rosenkrantz and his follower Stygge Krumpen who lost his office in the reformation in 1536.

The church has a rich inventory. The late Gothic altarpiece is magnificent - a Netherland work from the beginning of the 1500s. In the southern chapel hangs a contemporary Maria figure, a late Gothic carving with a fine decoration. The figure is attributed to the Odense-carver Claus Bergs workshop ca. 1520. The communion table has a painted antepedium with a tablet from 1697 and the coat of arms of Holger Pachs and Lisbeth Bille of Sæbygård.

The pupils from Latin school made sketches of ships.

In the choir are kept 20 original late medieval monk-chairs in oak with pretty late Gothic carvings. A special detail are the sketches of ships which the pupils from the Latin school  have made while they had to listen to the hour-long sermon of the parson.. ( 52 sketches of ships from the period 1550-1739)

The granite font is from 1906. An older baptismal font,a  wooden carving from 1645 is now in the chapel. The pulpit is a Renaissance work  from 1577 with a Baroque decoration from 1695. The ore candelabres were given by Niels Iwersen and Ingeborg Banner in 1586.  In the front hall is a late Gothic crucifix from ab 1500, in the church are two other crucifix

There are several grave memorials in the church ( like epitaphs from the 1700s).


The present church yard replaced the old one in 1872. In an excavation in 1977 were found rests of  the kloster buildings. The rests of the kloster were broken down in 1536 and the monk stones were used to secure the harbour. On the other side of the square lies Sæby hospital established in 1565 by the nobleman Mogens Juel of Knivholt. 

Flade church/ Flade kirke, Horns herred, Hjørring amt.

Flade church, in Frederikshavn.

The church in Flade lies high and desolate upon a hillside. It is a whitewashed brick building without a tower, but with choir, nave, porch to the north and a chapel to the south. The oldest sections, the choir and the eastern section of the nave origin from late Romanesque time, probably from the beginning of the 1200s. The division of the walls is characteristic for the Romanesque brick-architecture in Vendsyssel. The access is from the porch through the still kept, simple and straight-edged north door, while the round arched south door is bricked-up. In the late Middle Ages the church was extended to the west (ab. 7,5 m), and the porch was built, although its western wall was built in the 1600s. The large chapel, now refurnished into a burial chapel, was built in ab. 1675 in small stones upon a profiled plinth; it opened towards the nave in a round arched, now closed arcade. Inside the church is a beamed ceiling, in the choir an unpainted plank ceiling.

Interior:
The triumph wall with the Romanesque choir arch has a narrow frieze above. * The altarpiece is in simple Baroque style, possibly from the end of the 1700s, with a newer painting. The large ore candelabres are according to inscription given 1591 by Willum Frandsen. A chalice from ab. 1700 was given by Otto Arenfeldt and wife Agathe Kirstine Beck (with engraved coat of arms and initials). Oblate box 1705 with the initials of Jens Olufsen Wang and his wife. Romanesque font in granite. Upon the north wall of the nave hangs a late Gothic choir arch crucifix with carved torment tools on the cross wood. * The pulpit is a Renaissance carving, according to inscription given in 1588 by Mogens Juel of Knivholt; in the six fields are scenes from the life of Christ. The upper pews are from 1592 with the paternal and maternal coat of arms of Otto Skeel of Bangsbo and Birgitte Lindenow. At the entrance are similar pews, but the other pews of the church are new.  Two church ships, frigates  from 1767 and 1838.


* An earlier altarpice from 1500 is now in Hirsholm church. 
* after a restoration 1957 the pulpit is now in unpainted oak and very pretty.     


Memorials:
Two memorial tablets, concerning a legacy founded by Christen Jensen Møenbo and wife in 1756. In the church two memorials: in the choir wall a large portrait grave stone for Mogens Juel and his two wives, with life-sized figures. Outside on the south wall of the church a gravestone for the priest Hans Borchorst (+ 1678) and wife. 

Knivholt belonged in the end of the 1300s to hr. Niels Ovesen (Panter) of Asdal and Skovgård (Vennebjerg herred) and his wife Johanne Andersdatter (Stenbrikke); their son Anders Nielsen (Panter) of Asdal (+ latest 1406) m. to Regitze Jakobsdatter Lunge (+ 1405-06) did probably inherit K., which was still only a tenant farm. In an exchange 1419 the farm went to his brother-in-law rigshofmester hr. Anders Jepsen (or Jakobsen) Lunge of Gunderslevholm (+ latest 1429), who had been m. to 1) Ingeborg Nielsdatter (Panter) ( + earliest 1411). The farm was probably thereafter divided among several heirs. Hr. Oluf Andersen Lunge of Odden (+ earliest 1473) wrote himself of K. in 1457. His son hr. Oluf Olufsen Lunge of Odden (+ earliest 1484) was m. to 1) Kirsten Engelbrechtsdatter (Bydelsbak) of Torbenfeld (+ latest 1475), whose father hr. Engelbrecht Albrecthsen (Bydelsbak of Torbenfeld) (+ 1492 or 93) in 1484 let hr Oluf charge for K. and other inheritance after the daughter. Hr. Engelbrecht possibly also bought the rights in K. through his mother fru Pernille Axelsdatter (Brok of Estrup)( + before 1493), a daughter of Ellen Ovesdatter Lunge, above mentioned Anders Jepsen Lunge's brother's daughter,  in her marriage to rigsråd hr. Axel Lagesen (Brok of Estrup)( + 1498). In 1553 K., which now was a farm/manor, belonged to Mogens Juel of Hvidstengård (+ ab. 1579) , whose mother fru Dorte Mogensdatter Krabbe (m. to Mogens Juel of Udstrup) (+ earliest 1536) was a daughter of fru Elsebeth Tygesdatter Lunge (+ earliest 1519), and thus related to the owners from the Middle Ages.

Mogens Juel probably owned K. until his death ab. 1579. His son Mogens Mogensen Juel (+ ab. 1605), wrote himself in 1590 of K., he had probably to give up the farm because of debt, since it was a part of the property of the deceased fru Ingeborg Skeel of Voergård. ( + 1604). K now went to Hans Axelsen Arenfeldt of Rugård and after his death in 1611 to the son, the infamous Niels Arenfeldt (+ 1669), who in 1630 sold the farm to Otte Marsvin of Dybæk etc. (+ 1641) which buy must have gone back, since he in 1632 exchanged it to his father-in-law Hans Dyre (+ 1655), who in 1652 moved to Sæby and gave the farm back to his daughter Karen Dyre.

Later owners: Hans Arenfeldt; Hans Lorents Arenfeldt; Christen Jensen Møenbo; Peter Leth; Jens Madsen Rosborg; Christoffer Madsen Rosborg; Carl Vilh. Uldall; Fritz Peter Adolph Uldall; N. Rasmussen; C.G. Frederiksen; C. Helmer Frederiksen.  

Knivholt is today a kulturinstitution (cultural institution).


Vangsgård was in 1474 owned by Albert Pedersen, but was probably the same year deeded by him to Børglum kloster.

The houses Kierche Schouf and Winter Huus are mentioned in 1688.

Listed prehistorics: at S. Stenhave a long dolmen without chamber and at Vangsgårde a hill with a stone cist with a cover stone. 15 hills, one longhill and a stone grave. The hills all lie in the high terrain in the western part of the parish, a group of 6 at Flade church. At Bækman are listed  two underground cellars from early Roman period. Besides is listed the unique Iron Age burial site at Donbæk, upon a highplaced terrain are 62 memorials, of which 3 are large hills like the large Borgbjerg while the rest are small hills, round and oblong and stone circles. Graves are found from Celtic Iron Age until the Viking period ( among others a pretty gold  bracelet from late Roman period), but the main settlement is from Germanic Iron Age. 20 of the memorials are excavated by the National Museum.
Demolished or destroyed: a stone cist at Tøttenborg. 88 hills, all upon the high terrain. In Bjerghøj at N. Rævedal were found 3 stone graves from Iron Age with gold rings, silver things and clay pots.

Upon the low terrain in the eastern part of the parish were many findings from Iron Age, like burial sites from early Roman period at Knivholt, Fylleled skov and Flade mølle (mill). At Flade Vestergård is a settlement.

Names from the Middle Ages and 1600s: Flade (1419 Fladen); Donbæk (1573 Donne Beck, 1610 Donnbech); Bækman (1419 Bekman); Vangsgårde (1474 Vanxgaardtt); Fladbjerg (1567 Fladbierg); Knivholt (1419 Knyfholt); Købstrup (1419 Køgstørp, 1688 Kiøbstrup); Tronderup (1581 Thrundrup, 1662 Trondrup); Torndal (1579 Tuorndal); Røntved (1419 Rwntwed); Øster and Vester Dal (1579 Dalen, 1662 Dall); Tøttenborg (1579 Thøtenborg, 1662 Tottenborig); Birkebakken (1662 Bircke Backen); Nr. Rævdal (1610 Nøer Reffdaal).    

 Source: Trap Danmark, Hjørring amt, 1960.
 photo: Google earth,