(Photo of the Linå church itself later)
The large church in Linå has an apse, a choir and a nave from the Romanesque period, a western extension from after the reformation with a later added tower and a chapel to the north from 1689. A disappeared porch is mentioned in 1616 and 1664. The original sections are built in granite ashlars and a little hardpan upon a bevel plinth, the apse is decorated with a cornice. Upon the loft stands the east gable of the choir, built in wellcarved granite ashlars and the western gable in field stones and raw boulder. From the original windows only the east window of the apse is seen as a glare; a piece of a monolith lintel is inserted in the north wall of the nave. Two rich six-pillars portals with relief-decorated tympana are kept. The south portal on the west side of the tower - through which the entrance is to the church - is decorated with a tympanum with Christ. The north portal, which tympanum has a intertwined cross - gives access to the church from the nave to the north chapel. A third tympanum - with an unfinished or clumsy image of Christ - is now placed inside above the north door, this origins from the broken down Bjarup church together with another tympanum with the crucified Christ, which is inserted in the churchyard wall. The western extension is built in small ashlars, which probably also origins from Bjarup church.
The extension might be dated to ab. 1590, when the building was dilapidated, but it was rebuilt, partly by assistance from the king, in stones and limestone from
Silkeborg slot (castle). The burial chapel in granite ashlars and with a curved lead roof was built in 1689 according to a sandstone tablet with the coat of arms of Daniel Fischer and Else Linde. The same date, coat of arms and initials are seen upon the finely carved door wing of the chapel to the nave and upon a painted wooden plate, placed above the entrance at the same spot.
The tower was mentioned as dilapidated in 1679 and it was probably broken down soon after. In its present look it was probably rebuilt in ab. 1800 in red monk bricks , at the bottom with ashlars from the west gable of the nave. An earlier access was via a flatcurved door to the south. The stairway to the upper storey of the tower is via a stair in the wall. The inside of the church has a flat ceiling the apse a newer half cupola vault.
A medieval bricked communion table with a niche.
The altarpiece in Renaissance with a painted date 1616 and relief-carved coat of arms of the vasal Christen Holck and wives, Karen Krafse and Marie Below. In the large field was at a restoration brought to light the original inscription, which had been covered by a crucifixion-painting, (now kept at the loft) upon wood with inscription and year 1693, above which was a painting upon canvas, painted by A. Lyders, Århus 1863, now hangs upon the wall of the nave. A slender (colours cleansed off) figure of John the Baptist from a Catholic altarpiece (ab. 1500) stands at the north wall of the nave. Altar chalice given by colonel Adam Erenreich von Preen. Brass-candelabres, probably copies in Gothic style. A Romanesque granite font with lion figures and male head. A newer brass baptismal dish. Pewter baptismal dish and
øreskål (ear bowl), according to engraved initials, coat of arms and date given in 1694 by colonel Adam Erenreich von Preen and wife Anna Sophie von Lesbrant, made by the Århus-
kandestøber (pewterer) Hans Nielsen Godtlænder, these things are now in
Den gamle By, Århus. A baptismal jug in pewter from the late 1800s. An octagonal pyramidal font-lid in wood is kept at the loft of the choir. A simple pulpit and sounding board from ab. 1630 with the coat of arms of Christen Holck and his second wife Marie Below. Entrance and decoration from 1936. Newer pews, a Baroque priest stool in the northwest corner of the choir. A memorial for the killed soldiers in the war 1848-50. Church ship, bought in Hamburg, 1939. Bell from 1908, from the Smithske støberier, with inscription from the recast bell from 1738 by H. Tessien.
In the north chapel burials for the members of the family Fischer. An epitaph for von Preen and three wives has disappeared. A Romanesque gravestone with a portrait-relief of a man and with inscription: Asserus, was in 1862 moved from
Linå Kro's (the Inn) stairs to the south wall of the tower. Some gravestones with portrait-reliefs for a parish priest (Rasmus Nielsøn) and wife. A memorial for a dean (Bagger) and wife etc.
On top a hillside a little northeast of Mollerup was the disappeared
Bjarup kirke, which small congregation still in 1524 paid
landehjælp (taxes) and which in 1528-29 was one of the churches, which had to deliver a church bell to king Frederik I for recast. The site of the church, covered with low earth-rises, is still visible. The building consisted of apse, choir and nave in granite ashlars. It was 25 m long, the nave 14 m broad. At the west-end is seen a low circular rise, probably the trace from a tower. The church was probably broken down in the 1500s, but still in 1808 the priest-report mentions that the churchyard-dike was visible, and the walls of the church were preserved in a height of 50-75 cm above ground; there were no graves to see, but round heather knolls, where the graves were; likewise was found a stone with two carved feet, probably from a picture ashlar. The parish once belonged under
Linå pastorat, it consisted of the villages Bjarup, Volstrup (now in Dallerup parish) and Bottrup (which has disappeared). Upon the site Thor Lange, whose uncle owned Kalbygård in Låsby parish, has raised an iron cross in 1915.
Dynæs was by Valdemar Atterdag conveyed in 1360 to hr. Palne Jonsen (Munk), whose son-in-law hr. Ove Hase in 1401 pawned D. and
Laven to hr. Elev Elevsen (Bild). The pawn came with his daughter to hr. Laurids Hvas, married second time to Thore Eriksdatter (Mus), who as a widow married Ove Ovesen (Mur-Kaas). Ove Hase's son Palne Hase tried in 1423 in vain to release the estate, whereafter his sister Inge Ovesdatter, m. to Mads Fredbjørnsen, gave bishop Ulrik in Århus authority to release it. Ove Ovesen had to give D.to him in 1435, and in 1444 the bishop had the ownership-rights transferred from Mads Fredbjørnsen. The castle belonged to the Århus bishops until the reformation, when the Crown took over.
The large
Dynæs Voldsted (castle bank) has a picturesque situation upon an isthmus, which from higher land (Dynæs Fang) to the north protrudes out into Julsø (lake), and which connection to land originally was a narrower strip of land, where the road still runs. The square castle bank (60 x 68 m) stands with steep banks and is unusually high, 10 meter above surrounding terrain and 12 meter above the lake; the bank has at the foot been surrounded by moats, which still are seen as cuts in north, west and south. To the east was possibly a moat with an outer dam. Outside the southern moat on the cultivated tip of the isthmus is seen a rise in the terrain, probably a rest of the natural bank, from which the castle bank seemingly was cut. Upon the top has been done various small excavations, and there were finds of monk bricks and granite boulders, but a real archaeological examination of the castle has never been done. North of the northern moat is some kind of front work, which again to the north was protected by a moat. This part of the plan is now very levelled.
Upon
Gammelkol a little northwest of Dynæs lies a bank, which might be interpreted as a medieval castle bank. It consists of an almost rectangular site (ab. 15x 80 m), surrounded by a dry moat with a bank outside. In the northern end of the site lies an earth hill with a flat circular topsurface with traces of wallwork with mortar.
The family Fischer from Silkeborg owned in the 1600s large parts of the parish, several resided at
Lavengård, and Mathias Fischer, major Andreas Bornich and his wife Anne Margrethe Felthaus died at the farm (1704, 1717 and 1724). - Owner in 1872 J.C. Boeck.
Oluf Eskildsen pawned in 1334 his estate in
Bjarup to herr Lyder Limbæk.
In the parish are known three sacred springs:
Tyrens hul at the meadow near Mollerup village;
Helligkilden north of Skellerup village;
Bjars kilde at the northeast corner of Bjarup churchyard dike.
A legend says that at
Kalbygård (Låsby parish) lived three sisters, Lin, Bjar and Dal, who built churches in Linå, Bjarup and Dallerup. When they sailed across Bjarup sø after a church visit, Bjar lost her gold ring in the lake, and she cried a curse, and the lake flooded over its banks, and the fish were on the dry, but inside the first fish,which was opened at Kalbygård, was the ring. Dal's grave is still seen east of Dallerup kirke, if you touch it, there will be cattle disease.
The poet Johan Skjoldborg lived in a house at Dynæs from 1907-14, and he arranged in the years 1910-14 several large folk-meetings at Dynæs. A memorial was raised in 1926 upon Dynæs for Skjoldborg and the meetings.
In Laven is raised a bust in 1950 of the poet Nis Petersen who lived in Laven from 1938 until his death in 1943.
In the parish were at least three villages which have disappeared:
Assendrup (1460 Aszenddrop lyche),
Torup (1231 Thoretorp) at Skellerup and
Remstrup (1261 Rembestrop). At Kærsmølle was the farm
Kærsmark (1427 Kyærsmark) , in Linå the house
Bøgested (1634 Bøgested.) .
Listed prehistorics: 38 hills, of which several are rather large:
Ørnekol north of Mollerup, one hill just north of Laven, one in Linå Vesterskov, one, which belongs to a group of 14 hills in Hesselskov; one, very pretty kept just east of Linå kirke, 2 south of and one north of Skellerup Nygårde and one close to Resenbro. Besides have been found a stone with 55 hollows in the forest at Kærsmølle.
Demolished or destroyed: 100 hills, which mainly were in the eastern part of the parish, where at Hårup, Skellerup and Mollerup Station were some close groups.
In a work in a pit bog in Skellerup were in 1843 found 15 German speciedalere, the latest from Mansfeld 1648.
Names from the Middle Ages: Linå (1376 Lønng sogenn, 1401 Lennow, 1573 Lenno); Mollerup (1423 Maalerup, 1482 Moldrvp); Laven (1401 Laffuend, 1577 Laven); Hårup (1334 Hatterup, 1376 Hatrop, 1577 Horup); Skellerup (1424 Skældorp); Bjarup (1350 Byrkæthorp, 1586 Bierup); Halved (1433 Halduid); Dynæs (1360 Dyrnes) Kærsmølle (1610 Kiersmølle).
Source: Trap Danmark, Skanderborg amt. 1964.
photo Linå kirke 2007: grethe bachmann
