Fovlum/Foulum church, Himmerland

Fovlum church, wikipedia

Fovlum/Foulum Kirke
Vesthimmerlands Kommune, Region Nordjylland 
Before 1970: Gislum Herred, Aalborg Amt. 

Fovlum church in Himmerland lies in the village Fovlum 7 km southwest of Farsø. The church  is one of the best preserved Romanesque granite churches in Denmark. The apse, choir and nave  are built in granite ashlars in ab. 1125-1175 -  and a porch was added in 1879 ( in Romanesque style in red bricks upon a granite plinth). The two church portals are preserved, both with frame stones formed like half pillars with richly profiled corbels and buestik with rundstave (curved and round sticks) . Above the bricked south door is a relief of an animal flanked by two spear-armed warriors. In the tympanum below is a traceable, weathered relief of a bird -  maybe the Holy dove. The male entrance is bricked with ashlars, and among those is a chessboard like a similar ashlar in Skarp Salling church's triumph wall.

photo: Google Earth

The Romanesque windows are kept in the apse and on the north side of the church. In the porch are five gravtræer (grave-trees) = grave frames in oak, with inscriptions from the 1600s. They were brought to light from the church floor in connection to a restore in the 1870s. Both the pulpit from the ab. 1600s and the altarpiece from 1633 are equipped with newer paintings. Only the painting in the top piece of the altarpiece is original.

Upon the church yard is a bell frame -  and until 1872 was a long dolmen. The church was reinaugurated in 2012 after a restore with a new altarpiece painted by Anita Houvenaeghel (born 1945) -  and the church has got a new colorized kneeler, pulpit, pews and loft in order to create a full colorness. 

Fovlum, chessboard, wikipedia

Source from a website of Fovlum church.
The Danish writer Martin A. Hansen travelled in his time round Denmark and visited the Danish churches. He called the church in Fovlum "the noblest building in the country". Few Danish churches have been kept as original as Fovlum church. The long dolmen in the churchyard is now traceable as a long east-west rise above the earth.

The stone master in charge of the church building more than 800 years ago might also have built Skarp Salling church and the original cathedral in Viborg.

photo: Google Earth

The north wall of Fovlum church is untouched while the south wall is was worn out from changing temperatures and was rebricked about 100 years ago and equipped with larger windows. The porch was built outside the original woman entrance. The big planks on the wall are gravestones in wood frpm the 1600s which were placed as a lid upon the graves inside the church.

The big crucifix is new and created by the artist Erik Heide from Mors (island in Limfjorden) , who also made some gravestones in the church yard , a water stone by Ullits school and a monolite of flying birds which form small crosses at a new church yard in the village Farsø.

The church walls were red in the Middle Ages. They are now white washed and in a few places the red colour breaks through the white.

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Stouby church/ Stouby kirke and Rosenvold, Bjerre herred, Vejle amt.

Stouby church, ab. 15 km east of Vejle, photo: gb

Stouby kirke
The large whitewashed church in Stouby is in its present look a Gothic longhouse building with a tower to the west and a porch to the south. From the original Romanesque travertine church is left only the northside of the nave with a late Romanesque extension to the west. A single round arch window is seen as an outside niche, the extension, which wallwork is thicker than the original wall, has in the top a frieze of narrow *lisens. In the Gothic period, probably ab. 1400-1450, the building was reshaped into a longhouse with a triangular choir finish, which in the east wall has a *firpasblænding. The high, light room has inside four cross vaults with profiled ribs and very narrow *gjordbuer and a half star vault in the choir section. The tower to the west in monk bricks is a little newer than this rebuild, and it lost its vaults at a later date - there is now a beamed ceiling in the tower room, which opens toward the nave in a new tower arch. Its upper sections are cut down till a little above the height of the nave, probably in 1817 (iron numbers  and initials for F.Rantzau). The tower stairway  is in the southwest corner of the nave. The building was restored 1877 and the porch origins from this time.

* lisens = protruding pilastres/bands
* firpasblænding = a glare similar to a fourclover
* gjordbue = a reinforcement curve of a vault


Interior: In the choir are 4 pretty mosaic windows from 1952 by Kresten Iversen. The altarpiece is a skilled carving from 1731 , it was given by Dean Jørgen Knudsen Beesche and made by Jens Jensen or Jørgen Slache. An altarpainting, copy  after Carl Bloch, hangs in the porch (1964). Chalice 1786, given by Carl Adolph Rantzau and Christiane Ernestine Frederiche Vedel. A Romanesque granite font with four horisontal angels, one is Sct Michael, fighting a monster. A pulpit in late Renaissance 1640 with old decorations. A bell from 1708, Friderich Holtzmann.

Rosenvold slot, photo: gb

Rosenvold is mentioned the first time in 1575 when Karen Gyldenstierne, widow after Holger Ottesen Rosenkrantz of Boller and their heirs at R. had permission to seek to Stouby church, while the ealier owners of R. had seeked to Barrit church.  Their son Frederik Rosenkrantz is written of the farm in 1599, but he was exiled the same year because of his relation to Rigborg Brockenhuus and died in 1602. His brother Otte Christoffer Rosenkrantz took over R., but at his death in 1621 R. and Boller had, because of debt, to be sold to Ellen Marsvin, who inn 1630 had to give the farms to her daughter Kirstine Munk. She died in 1658 and her daughter Elisabeth Augusta sold R. in 1660 to stiftamtmand, gehejmeråd Henrik Rantzau (+ childless in 1674). The farm was inherited by his brother's son  kammerherre Henrik Rantzau (+ 1687), his brother grev Otto Rantzau (+ 1719) the son generalmajor grev  Frederik Rantzau (+ unmarried 1726), his brother viceroy in Norway, grev Christian Rantzau (+ 1771), who in 1756 established "Det grevelige Rantzauske Forlods af R".   

Later owners: The family Rantzau up till present.


Rosenvold, the main building is listed in class A.

Some extra details in history: 
The castle ruin is still seen in the forest northeast of Rosenvold. Staksevold was probably withdrawn and broken down by queen Margrethe I in her work of gathering Denmark and the Nordic countries in the second half of the 1300s.

In front of the coast banks on the low meadows towards Vejle fjord and a few hundred meters from the sea Karen Gyldenstierne built her dower house Rosenvold in 1585. Before this her husband Holger Rosenkrantz had established Rosenvold as a main farm ab. 1570. He had bought the areas of the earlier Staksevold, a "røverborg" (robbers' castle), which was a stone tower with a bank and moat and outside with wooden buildings and a stable.
At the death of Karen Gyldenstierne her two sons took over Rosenvold, first Frederik Rosenkrantz, who run into bad luck because of his relation to the queen's Lady in Waiting Rigborg Brockenhuus from Egeskov. As a punishment she was immured at Egeskpov, while Frederik contracted the wrath of the king and was exiled. His brother Christoffer took over the estate, but he got some economic problems and had in 1621 to sell Rosenvold to Ellen Marsvin of Holckenhavn , wjo was the big collector of estate at that time and the mother-in-law of Christian IV. In 1630 Ellen Marsvin was at the kings command ordered to give Rosenvold to her daughter Kirsten Munk, since she was banished from the court after having refused the king access to her chamber. Kirsten Munk's heirs had to sell Rosenvold in 1660 to Henrik Rantzau of Schönweide in Holstein and stiftamtmand in Århus. The Rantzau family is still the owners of Rosenvold and has been for almost 350 years. (source.: Rosenvold.dk/)  

Rosenvold Marina, photo:gb

Gravengård etc was by hr. Oluf Stigsen (Krognos) pawned in 1497 to bishop Niels Clausen in Århus, later it belonged to the son hr. Mourids Olufsen (Krognos)(+ 1550), with whose daugther it came to Holger Rosenkrantz of Boller in 1662. G was from Boller laid out to Gabriel Marselis at Havreballegård.

The medieval castle bank Gravengård was situated close north of Lille Gravengård about 500 m northwest of Stouby kirke.  A farm was earlier  situated at the castle bank. After a fire in 1926 the farm was outparcelled and the site was levelled. The castle bank lay in a pond which water surrounded it on three sides, upon the fourth side was probably a moat. In the 19th century were probably destroyed some banks. Upon the castle bank were buildings in monk bricks.

Rohden was in 1662 two farms belonging under Rosenvold. In 1758 grev Christian Friis (of Vadskærgård) of Frijsenborg deeded both farms to manager Hans Erik Saabye, later of Brantbjerg, and in 1771-72 justitsråd Jørgen Hvass de Lindenplam of Tirsbæk deeded the two farms to Christen Mikkelsen Kjær, who in 1789 only owned one farm, Neder Rohden. This farm his son Jens Kaj Kjær willed shortly before his death in 1826 to his daughter Christiane Kjær, in 1827 m. to Jørgen Hansen, later of Borchsminde.
Later owners: Jacob Lund Eggertsen, Jens Simonsen Buch, Nicolai Jensen Jelling, Johannes Brorson, Flemming Lerche, Folmer Lüttichau.

Niels Jensen of Ullerup is mentioned 1340-46.  

Jysk Nervesanatorium at Vejle fjord, built 1898-99. = Vejlefjord Sanatorium.

According to Pont Atlas Gammelby was originally called Stouby, but since a part of the town burnt down and was rebuilt about 1 km from there, the new town was called Stouby, while the rest was called Gammelby. Since the vicarage lies here, the parish was for a period called Gammelby parish.

forest at Fakkegrav, photo: gb

At the beach were some farms Falsterbo (1664 Falsterboe). Northeast of Hugholm were some houses called Himmerig. From dissapeared farms are Smedegård (1497 Smedegard) in Hyrup and Bjerregård (1683 Bierregaard, Berrgord). Furthermore the houses Knoseborg or Hulvejen (1664 Huolweyen or Knoseborrig), Sanderbækhus (1683 Sanderbech Hues) and Strandhuset (1688 Strandhuuset), de two last mentioned were fisherman's houses. Fakkegrav was earlier named Favrdal (1683 Fougerdal) and later Pakhuset. 




Listed prehistorics: At Rosenvold is Tehøj in which top are two cover stones, probably for a passage grave, and a somewhat disturbed dolmen chamber. Furthermore a large hill south of the church and two hills in Ullerup skov.
Demolished or destroyed: not less than 19 stone graves, of which two were long dolmens, one with 4 chambers; a dolmen chamber and two passage graves. In Pont. Atalse is mentioned at the vicarage a stone -surrounded hill with several chambers,which the parish priest let abolish.

From Rohden is known a small heap of shells from early Roman period.

Names from the Middle Ages and 1600s: Stouby (1399 Stoby, 1498 Stowby); Gammelby (1498 Gamelbi); Hyrup (1477 Hyrop, Hyrøp); Hostrup (1300s Horstorpmark, 1497 Hostrup); Belle (1459 Bælle); Fakkegrav (1664 Fastjgrau); Stoubyskov (1664 Stoubye Schouff); Hjerrild (1610 Herildtt); Hugholm (1683 Hugholm); Grund (1477 Grwnnæ); Rosenvold (1575 Rosenvold); Rohden (1474 Rode, 1475 Rodhe); Grundgård (1495 Grundegaardtt, Grunegaardt); Rønsholtskrog (1683 Rønsholt Sovhues); Gravengård (1462 Grawengart); Bobæk (1664 Boebech); Over Ullerup (1340 Vgelthorp, 1474 Wllerøp), Stoubylund (1511 Stobylundt); Årup Mølle (1458 Arrvp Mølle, Arwp Mølle) .     



Source: Trap Danmark, Vejle amt, 1964.

photo 2011: grethe bachmann

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

Gærum church, ab. 8 km southwest of Frederikshavn.

Gærum parish, Horns herred, Hjørring amt.


The lonely situated whitewashed church in Gærum (Gerum) has a new tower to the west, a nave and choir and a porch to the north. The present nave and choir represent the oldest core, undoubtedly a late Romanesque building in large monk bricks, mixed with some boulder, but there are no safe evidence of the dating. The whole north side is now without windows, earlier was supposed that there was a trace of Romanesque windows, which are not visible now. The church has inside a beamed ceiling, while the choir has a cross vault. At the end of the Middle Ages a tower was built, but it seems that only the bottom storey with a point arched arcade towards the nave was finished. A new tower is built upon this place, whitewashed with a pyramid roof (built 1956-57); and at the same occassion the walls of the nave were enheightened. The porch was built in 1863.

The altarpiece is a Renaissance work from 1602 (painted date of year), undoubtedly given by Vogn Svendsen (Orning) of Gerumgård, whose paternal and maternal coat of arms are at the postament. The altarpiece has three high narrow fields, each with a triangular gable and divided by slender columns; in the middle field is a painting from ab. 1850. A Romanesque granite font; a baptismal dish in brass from the 1500s with a later giver-inscription. An oblate box was in 1712 given by Jens Olufsen Wang, who earlier in 1690 gave a lyseskærm ( reflector in brass) for the pulpit. The pulpit is in high Renaissance with carved year 1592, in the fields, divided by baluster-columns, are biblical images, flatcarved with engraved details; in the postament fields inscriptions and the coat of arms of the above mentioned Vogn Svendsen Orning and wife, Ingeborg Basse. The same couple is memorized upon two pew gables, now in the tower room. (1960). The other pews are from the last restoration in 1956. In the porch stand two Romanesque  granite crosses. A Romanesque bell from ab. 1175, without inscription.

* upon the north wall of the nave hangs an altar painting (Golgatha) from 1915, which was used before the painting from 1895. (see various links on the net: Gærum kirke/ Gerum kirke.  

* restoration of altar in 2012? with a new pretty altar decoration, but no information about the artist



 Gerumgård was a herregård (manor) already in the Middle Ages. In 1350 væbner Niels Pedersen (Hagel) wrote himself of Gerum; in 1395 Peder Nielsen (Hagel ), who had 3 søblade (= water lily leaves or hearts)  in his coat of arms. In 1469 Knud Nielsen lived in Gerum, and in 1520 fru Else. In 1538 G. was owned by Jens Torlufsen (Basse from Vendsyssel), in 1568 by his widow Maren Nielsdatter (Smalsted). Their daughter Ingeborg Jensdatter (Basse from Vendsyssel) brought by marriage the farm to Vogn Svendsen (Orning) (+ earliest 1599),whose son Svend Vognsen Orning (+ earliest 1636) before 1617 sold G. to his relative captain Hans Lauridsen Basse (from Vendsyssel) (+ ab. 1648), but in 1627 he is mentioned as residing in "Vestergård in Gerum".  G. was inherited by Hans Basse's daughters, Sophie Hansdatter Basse (from Vendsyssel) (+ ab. 1667), m. to Erik Hvas of Skjortholt, and Ellen Hansdatter Basse (from Vendsyssel) (+ ab. 1673 unmarried). After Erik Hvas' death in 1661 his widow sold in 1667 G. with estate to her sister, the above mentioned jomfru Ellen Basse, who in 1668 pawned it to Erik Hvas' 6 children, of whom the daughter Abel Marie Hvas (of Skjortholt)(+ earliest 1680) was m. to Georg Henrik v Grimmer, who in 1674 wrote himself of G. but left his wife the same year and went down to the Netherlands.

Later owners: Jens Hvas, Tyge Andersen (Rugholm), Kirsten Knudsdatter, Hans Petersen Nordmand, Jørgen Bille of Ellinggård, biskop Christoffer Gertsen Mumme of Eget, Fr. Henrik Stampe, Claus Hansen, Hans Peder Clausen Hauman, Christen Ørsnes at Hørbylund, Hans Severin Rafn, Jonas Jespersen, Arent Hassel Rasmussen of Sejlstrup, Christen Løgtholt and Christen Neisig, Niels R. Bornholm, Hans Høyer, N. Severin Nyssum, Hans Jelstrup, Lauge Severin Fanøe, Valdemar Kongsted, Chr. Oluf Højmark, Chr. Christiansen (Bouet), Statens jordlovsudvalg, udstykning, hovedparcel: solgt 1952 til: Kurt Jelvard Møller.


Rydsholt was owned free by Niels Tømmermand in Aalborg in 1525 acc. to Christian II's  royal letter. In 1579 Karine Krabbe (of Østergård)( + 1586), widow after Niels Skeel of Nygård (Brusk herred)( + 1561) and Otte Banner of Asdal (+ 1585) bought on behalf of his wife fru Ingeborg Skeel (+ 1604) of Voergård  the right of the Crown in R. with permission to negotiate the peasant taxes.

Fru Abel Marie Hvas (of Skjortholt) wrote herself of Svejs in 1576 .

In Rævdal is in 1576 mentioned fru Bolle Svendsdatter (Orning).

A house at Gerumgård was in 1662 called Rylden. In 1688 is in the parish mentioned the farm Boes and the house Lille høfuit.   

Listed prehistorics: the parish is in relation to its size  very rich on prehistorics. Listed are: a long dolmen, a passage grave, 2 long hills, 34 hills and a stone circle. The long dolmen is Stenstuen at Gærum kirke, 68 m long with 57 edge stones and a disturbed chamber in the east end. The passage grave Blakshøj is one of the largest and best preserved in Jutland with an eight m long chamber. Here were found 3 flint axes and some clay pot pieces. Among the hills are especially two large hills at Kragkær, one upon the highest point of the parish Kig-ud , and close to this is Storhøj, and two hills at Nr. Vrangbæk.
Demolished or destroyed: two dolmens, of which one brought 6 flint axes, 3 claypots etc, the other several amber pearls; furthermore 23 long hills, 120 hills, a stone circle and a large amount of small mounds.

Names from the Middle Ages and 1600s: 
Rævdal (1579 Refvedal); Vester and Øster Rør (1610 Røer, 1662 Wester- Øster Rør); Bovet (1662 Bowed); Tvedens Huse (1484 Twedh); Gerumgård (1662 Gierumbgaard); Sveje (1662 Sveige); Blakshøjgård (earlier Gødgård) (1610 Giøgard); Bygstade (1688 Bug Stade); Vejrbakken (1662 Weyerbachen); Bol (1638 Bodel, 1662 Boell); Fuglsang (1610 Fouellsanngh); Rydsholt (1467 Rettzholt, 1525 Rysholt); Nr. Vrangbæk (1610 Vrangbech); Hulsig (1572 Holssig); Guddal (1662 Gudall); Kragkær (1610 Kragkier); Kovstrup (1610 Kosterup); Lybershøj (1579 Lubeshof, Lubischøf.)




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

Nødager church / Nødager kirke, Djurs Sønder herred, Randers amt.

foto: stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk

foto: stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk

foto: stig bachmann Nielsen, naturplan.dk

The whitewashed church in Nødager is built as a longhouse with tower to the west and a porch to the southside. The cernel is a Romanesque limestone-building, it had originally nave and choir, from which stand now only the sidewalls of the nave and parts of the west gable, decorated with partly well-preserved blind arcade-galleries under the roof. In the west gable is a traceable little highplaced window, and above this a relief cross in glare. Another bricked-up window is seen on the north side. (the church only gets light from the south). Both Romanesque doors are kept, the bricked-up north door is decorated with halfpillars. Already in the early Middle Ages, possibly in the late 1100s, the church had a tower to the west, built in granite ashlars upon a double bevel plinth and in the bell storey small double windows with pillars; these have disappeared, but a lintel with a double curve is still on its place on the north side, another is bricked-up on the south side of the choir. The tower has original western portal with a tympanum-relief: a cross surrounded by horsemen with lances. In the late Middle Ages the Romanesque choir was broken down, and the church was extended to the east in the broadth of the nave, and it had a new, flat altar wall. The eastern extension is possibly contemporary to a rebuild of the tower  and a new porch-building. The choir gable got a  fine late Gothic east gable, and the whole church and the tower room were covered in octagonal rib vaults. In the south wall of the new choir was built-in a staircase, which leads up to a small room with a walled desk , a medieval pulpit or a reading desk.  The large late Gothic porch is partly built in monk bricks, partly in re-used limestone ashlars; in 1896 the portal to the church was closed, the porch became store room (now burial chapel), and the entrance was moved to the tower.

Upon a walled communion table with a front panel from the 1600s stands a large altarpiece in Renaissance with later added sidewings in bruskbarok, dated 1647, the altarpiece has old paintings upon the footpiece, in the large field and in the top field, the earliest painting from the large field is now in Ebeltoft Museum. The altarpiece was restored with a remake of the old colours in 1952. A Romanesque granite font with rope windings, upon the baptismal dish are the coat of arms and of  Urne and Ahlefeldt and the year 1579. A simple pulpit with sounding board in Renaissance from the beginning of the 1600s with arcade fields without pictures. At the pews in the upper section of the church are kept several panels from the 1600s with biblical quotes. In the tower a bell with inscription from 1515. In the tower room frescoes from the late Middle Ages, restored in 1913. The church was restored in 1952. Church ship a brig.

 Stabrand was earlier a special parish with its own church, which stood in the middle of the village. The site was some years ago broken up, it was in raw granite boulder and showed that the church had a nave and a choir with a straight gable, a tower to the west and a porch to the south. The cemetery was still used in the 1600s. At Stabrand is a memorial with inscription: Here was Stabrand church ab. 1100-1650.

Two sacred springs are known from the parish, one at Pederstrup (perhaps the Sct Helene kilde, which is mentioned in 1743) and Højevad at Kelstrup. Kirsten's and Gertrud's springs at Pederstrup were seemingly not sacred.  

East southeast of Stabrand was the settlement Tolstrup (1688 Tolstrup). In a ploughing they have found foundation stones and pavements, and the place is still called Tolstruptofter. A folksong about a herremand at Tolstrup ( lord of the manor), who in a hunt fought with another lord of the manor, is referred to this place, the legend is also connected to the tympanum at Nødager church and to the round dolmen Hunden og Haren at Stabrand.

 









Listed prehistorics: 11 round dolmens, 8 long dolmens, 2 dolmen chambers and 26 hills. From the dolmens is mentioned the round dolmen Mejkirke with a large cover stone above the chamber at Skeldrup; a round dolmen Hunden og Haren and the long dolmen Stenmanden at Stabrand; the three-chambered long dolmen  Jyndovnen at Mårup and the two-chambered Kramkisten west of Skeldrup. Large hills are Stolshøj south of Nødager, Kejserhøj south of Pederstrup, another hill southeast of the same town and Store Sortehøj, 6 m high, north of Mårup.
Demolished or destroyed: 16 round dolmens, 9 long dolmens, 7 dolmen chambers, 12 indefinable stone graves and 115 hills, which mainly were in the middle section of the parish.

At Englund were found 33 Arabic coins and some silverpieces from the Viking period.

Names in the Middle Ages: Nødager (1342 Nutakær, 1441 Nøtagher); Kelstrup (1485 Kiilstrop); Pederstrup (1480 Pederstrop); Horstved (1441 Horsthwet); Stabrand (1387 Staabrund, 1416 Stabrun); Krarup (1458 Krarop; Mårup (1398 Morop); Skeldrup (1661 Schieldrup); Ildbjerg (1485 Eylbergh, 1610 Jlberigh); Skårupgård (1499 Skorop, Skordorp). 


Source: Trap Danmark, Randers amt, 1963.

photo March 2012:grethe bachmann