Sjørring church/ Sjørring kirke, Hundborg herred, Thisted amt.

Sjørring church was probably built by the king, which explains its special position in the district of Thy. Its  important connection  is the big castle bank Sjørring Volde close by, one of the biggest and strangest castle banks  in Denmark  - the rests of a strong medieval royal castle. The old name "Syrændæ" is mentioned as an estate of the Crown in Valdemars Jordebog. The castle was from the 1000s - and there was probably a wooden church in Sjørring at the same time. The present Romanesque church has replaced the wooden church in the 1100s.

In about 1630 and 1666 the church was still owned by the Crown, but in April 1699 it was deeded to fru Cornelia Bickers of Vestervig. It was later owned by the family Steenstrup from 1775. In April 1918 it was transferred to freehold.

The pretty Romanesque church lies upon a hillside about 300 meters northeast of Sjørring Volde. The terrain falls down from the building from all sides. The church was one of Thy's most esteemed churches, and the names of the hills nearby, like Galgehøj and Tingbakken indicate that the Thing of Hundborg Herred was held here.

Sjørring church/wikipedia

Sjørring church is the biggest and richest decorated church in Hundborg Herred, but it is strongly marked by restorations in 1875 and 1890. The church has Romanesque apse, choir and nave, all built in pretty carved ashlars upon a superbly done double plinth. Two very pretty pillar portals were partly renewed in 1875 and 1890, but they are still the only pillar portals in Thy. At the bricked-up south door stands a magnificent portal with double free-standing columns with richly profiled bases and capitals with animal- and flower decorations. The north portal in the porch has two columns formed as wooden columns, probably meant to be copies from the original wooden church.

In the south wall of the choir is a 98cm broad priest-door with a strange lintel. The north window of the choir is the best preserved of the original windows. In the north wall of the nave are three original windows. The windows have monolith lintels. There are several ashlars on the wall with stone mason-fields, also on the walls inside. The church room has flat, beamed ceilings and whitewashed walls, the triumph wall stands with the original  pretty ashlars, side altar niches and corbels. Some Romanesque frescoes were discovered in 1890, and some in1928 but no frescoes have been restored.

interior/gb

About 1500 a late Gothic tower and porch were built. The tower was demolished before 1769, in which year the church was mentioned as towerless ("kullet"). The present tower was built in 1929. At the building of the new tower the rests of a spiral staircase was found. The porch is built in yellow bricks, it has a cross vault. Both tower and porch are whitewashed. The roof of the porch is tiled, the rest of the church has lead roof.








The church yard is surrounded by granite boulder dikes. In the 1870s was still a groove called Pestkulen (the plague pit), which was said to origin from the time of the Black Death. This place was avoided and not used as a burial site.

Inventory.

Romanesque font/gb

The altarpiece is late Renaissance from 1640 with profiled frames and a middle field flanked by Corinthic pillars, in the middle field a dark double-painting from the same time. The pulpit has biblical reliefs. It is dated 1639. The panels in the choir are the original organ-gallery from the beginning of the 1600s. The panels were placed here after the building of the tower in 1929. The Romanesque granite font is a typical Thybo-font in two parts with a slightly profiled plinth and a round-stick at the foot of the basin. A beautiful high Gothic crucifix is from about 1350.  Silver chalice from 1739 by Jens Kjeldsen Sommerfeldt in Aalborg; sygekalk (silver chalice for the sick) from 1775 by P. Knudsen Lund, Aalborg;  silver candelabres from 1608. 








Two medieval wooden figures in Sjørring church. .
The female figure is late Gothic It might origin from an earlier altarpiece. It reminds about a figure in a Gothic altar cupboard in Hillerslev church. In a photo from Danmarks Kirker from 1936 it is seen that the figures have been placed together with the crucifix in the church, as if they were Mary and John. The male figure is probably carved by another carver. It has a rougher face and very big hands, but at the same time it has been carved in order to be similar to the female figure. Maybe the female figure was used at the side of the crucifix after the reformation, and then they needed a figure of John, and a new was carved.



                                                          

Bishop's Grave/gb

The Bishop's Grave.
The socalled Bishop's Grave south of the apse consists of three  granite memorials. It is one of Denmarks most potent Romanesque grave memorials, dated to the end of the 1100s. It is probably only the middle stone which lies in its original place. Upon the north prism stone is a pretty carved relief of a bishop's figure, but although it is called a bishop's grave it is proably not the burial of a bishop at all, but it is sooner a figure of Sct Nicolas of Myra.  On the opposite is another pretty stone with a high relief of an angel, while the other  prism stone has no reliefs, but by both stones stand typical gable stones with Romanesque crosses in high relief.

Several traditions are connected to this burial place. According to a legend it is the grave of an English bishop who was ship-wrecked at the west coast of Jutland. Another tradition says that bishop Mogens of Vestervig was buried here after he in vain had fought for bringing his bishopric to Thy. The third theory is that it was the first bishop of Børglum, Sølves/Silvester's grave.

Sjørring Volde left, the church right/ Google Earth

Sjørring Volde
In connection to a visit in the church it is a good idea to visit the castle bank Sjørring Volde.  From the church yard is a fine view across the magnificent landscape, which was a waterway in the Middle Ages. The royal castle bank by the lake shore was surrounded by water on all four sides and with the king's road through Thy east of the plan. The big fortification is a so-called Motte-Bailey plan, consisting of a front castle with the civil residenses, and behind double moats the fortification itself, which was a wooden tower upon a steep earth bank. The type is known already from the 1000s, shown on the Bayeux tapestry. 


Source: Danmarks Kirker Thisted amt ; Politikens bog om Danmarks Kirker, Niels Peter Stilling 2000.
 

Junget church / Junget kirke and Jungetgård, Nørre herred, Viborg amt. .

Junget Church. ab. 22 km north of Skive
Junget sogn, Nørre herred, Viborg amt.


Old stoolpanel and Romanesque font

The nave and choir is only one section in Junget Church. The nave only is preserved from the original ashlar building with a two-pillars portal. A pillar base in the porch was once referred to the disappeared church in Grættrup, but might as well have belonged to the walled-in north door of Junget Church. In late Middle Ages the Romanesque choir was broken down and the nave extended. The old ashlars were re-used and supplemented with monk bricks - possibly also with ashlars from the demolished church in Grættrup. The slim tower in ashlars and monk bricks is also from the late Middle Ages. The tower room is vaulted and has a round-arched opening to the nave with profiled kragsten (oblong relief stones) which might origin from the original choir arch. The porch in red monk bricks is from 1871.

The altar piece is a painting from 1892; remains of a Renaissance altar piece is placed upon the church loft. The altar chalice from 1595, engraved with the year 1636 with the coat of arms of Hans Bille and Kirsten Lunge. The pulpit from 1595, given by Albert Skeel and Anne Kaas
"deres salige søn Bjørn S. til ihukommelse" (a memory of their son Bjørn Skeel). The couple's coat of arms is placed in the upper (new) stool gables. One stool gable in early Renaissance is placed in the wall. The Romanesque granite font has a smooth basin. The baptismal basin is of Nürnberg-type and has the coat of arms of Steen Bille and Mette Sehested from 1682 and the paternal and maternal coat of arms of Jacob Seefeld of Visborg and Sophie Bille.

Jungetgård

Jungetgård
Junget sogn, Nørre herred, Viborg amt.

Jungetgård is placed upon a flat terrain in the northeastern part of Salling close to Limfjorden upon a square motte, partly surrounded by moats. The main building is listed in class A. It is a Late Gothic L-shaped building, built by Herman Skeel in 1548. Best preserved is the south wing in one tall storey.

Jungetgård belonged to Albert Andersen Skeel of Hegnet (+ ab. 1500), who around 1470 had to give a farm in Junget to Peder Mogensen Glob (Due) of Toftum. Lars Albertsen Skeel owned Jungetgård in 1513, and his brother Anders Skeel of Hegnet inherited it in 1538; before his death he gave it to his son, landsdommer Herman Skeel (+1555). His son Albert Skeel was executed in 1609 for having affronted Tingfreden (the peace at the Thing). After some fight about the inheritance his three daughters Karen( or Katrine), Kirsten and Ingeborg most likely got parts in Jungetgård. Karen Skeel was married to Bendix Rantzau, who was considered unreliable and was forbidden by the king to sell some of his wife's estate. After her death in 1610 he had to account for all her property and give up Jungetgård. Kirsten Skeel was 1621 married to Peder Bille of Lindved, who in 1624 indicated that Jungetgård was his. Ingeborg was married 2) to Palle Rodsteen of Lundsgård, who in 1624 was considered one of the last lodsejere (site owners) of Jungetgård. Later J. belonged to Mogens Kaas (Sparre-K.) of Tidemandsholm, who in 1634 sold it to Hans Bille + 1672. Various owners: Bille, Hviid, Sehested etc.


Junget strand at Limfjorden

Names in the Middle Ages:
Junget (*1472 Jvnghet, 1532 Iungett); Grættrup (1497 Grætrop); Skove (1510-25 Skoffue); Brokholm (*1471 Brockholm); Jungetgård (1497 Jwnget gord); Skammergård (1501 Skamminggaard.

In Grættrup was a church, which Chr. III on July 22. 1552 commanded demolished, whereafter the parish people had to attend Junget Church, in which the stone, timber, bell etc. from Grættrup Church were re-used. In the second half of the 1700s there were still rests of the old church - and the church yard with dike was uncultivated until the late 1800s. An upper section of a baptismal font at Jungetgård might be from the demolished church.

At Skammergårds Mark by a brook was a now disappeared old fortification plan, Skansen. It was rectangular with moats and banks.

South of Hegelund were in the heath square enclosures, possibly prehistoric fields.

Listed prehistorics: 6 hills, of which two pretty hills: Urhøje upon a high bank at Bundgård and two rather large hills at Skove, the last of a group of 7 hills, Skovhøjene.
Demolished or destroyed: 21 hills.

In Gåsemose (a moor) at Grættrup were found two large uncut flint axes; a large amount of amber pearls from the same moor are lost.

Source: Trap Danmark, Viborg amt, 1962.


photo Junget kirke & Jungetgård 2004: grethe bachmann

Højslev church/ Højslev kirke and Stårupgård, Fjends herred, Viborg amt.

Højslev Church, 20 km northeast of Viborg
Højslev sogn, Fjends herred, Viborg amt.


The impressive church of an unusual wall height consists of Romanesque apse, choir and nave with a late Gothic western tower, a southern porch and chapel. The Romanesque building is in granite ashlars. Both original doors are preserved. There are Romanesque windows in the walls of the apse and the choir and two unusually high placed windows in the northern wall of the nave.

Inside the choir and nave have beamed ceilings, while the apse has a half domed vault. The big south chapel, which was arranged as a burial chapel by Bjørn Kaas, is mostly built in ashlars , since only the eastern wall had larger monk bricks sections. The Communion table is ashlars and monk bricks - the altarpiece is richly carved from ab. 1640 and probably originally an epitaph. The altar crucifix was originally a coffin decoration from ab. the 1700s. The Romanesque granite font has double lions while the basin is somewhat spoiled. On the corner of the foot are male human heads.

The pulpit is Renaissance from 1585 with the coat of arms of Bjørn Kaas and fru Christence Nielsdatter Rotfeld whose coat of arms is also upon the parish clerk stool (parts from this dated 1571). Herskabsstole (Lord of the Manor stools) with the paternal and maternal (Ulfeld) coat of arms of Henrik Friis and the year 1698.

The church bell is from the end of the 1400s with a minuskelindskrift (inscription in small letters). The church ship is a full-rigged ship from 1900. In the porch is a Romanesque gravestone with cross and majuskelindskrift (inscription in capital letters ) - and in the chapel is a portrait stone of Bjørn Kaas (+1581) and Christence Nielsdatter Rotfeld (+ 1601).

Source: Trap Danmark,Viborg amt;
photo 2003: grethe bachmann


Stårupgård
Højslev sogn, Fjends herred, Viborg amt.

The Great Hall

Stårupgård is placed upon a trapeze-formed motte; water-filled moats surround the motte on all four sides. The two-storey main building is built upon a heavy foundation in raw granite boulder. The house is built in monk bricks and is now white-washed below a red tile gable roof. On the north side are traces of a west wing and a hemmelighedskarnap ( a toilet bay). On the south side was once a circular stair tower. The entrance door is framed in sandstone and above is placed a tablet with the coat of arms of rigsråd Bjørn Kaas and the year 1554.

The first time Stårupgård is mentioned in written sources is in 1364, when the owner was hr. Jep Lagesen Saltensee of Linde, who in 1377 is mentioned as a son of Lage Grummesen in the nearby Ørum. After his death (first mentioned in 1410) the farm went to his son hr. Lage Jepsen Saltensee, who was married to Ide Juel, a daughter of Iver Juel of Daubjerggård . He is mentioned in 1438 and 1456 as the owner of Stårupgård , but shortly after he died, and Stårupgård was inherited by one of his two daughters Edel Lagesdatter Saltensee, who was married to Jens Nielsen Kaas. (her second marriage).

Jens Nielsen Kaas was a member of the family Kaas with a Sparre (chevron) in their coat of arms ; he was the son of Niels Kaas of Kaas and Tårupgård and in this way Stårupgård came to this most famous family in Fjends herred (district). He died after 1519 and his sons landsdommer Niels Kaas (+1535) and Mogens Kaas owned the manor together until Niels Kaas in 1531 bought out his brother and became sole owner. Everything seems to show that landsdommer Niels Kaas lived at Stårupgård and that his four sons with Anna Bjørnsdatter (+1539) of the family Bjørn lived their childhood on this manor. They all became four highly respected men in Denmark.

The second son Bjørn Kaas took over the manor after his mother's death in 1539. In his youth he travelled abroad and was later until 1554 at court. After 1554 he administered several of the most important Danish vasalries with great competence. In 1567 he became a rigsråd (councillor of State) but he was not quite wrapped up in statemanship. Gradually he became a very wealthy man, in some degree because of his marriage to the rich Christence Nielsdatter Rotfeld. At the time of his death he was the owner of Stårupgård, Vangkær, Kærsgård, Ellinggård, Vorgård, Tybjerggård and Bjersøholm, and not at least Stårupgård had the advantage of his growing interest for his property. He let build the present main building. He must have started the building in 1560.

Besides his building activities Bjørn Kaas worked in completing the peasant-estate of Stårupgård. Big parts of Højslev and the surrounding parishes had from old times belonged to the Catholic church and after the reformation to the Crown, but Bjørn Kaas bought gradually a big part of this estate and little by little he had collected that much that he could apply for Birkerettigheder (judicial rights) for the estate of Stårupgård. He was granted this in 1564 with the condition that he gradually bought out the other lodsejere (site owners) of Højslev parish. First from the middle of the 1800s this was performed in full after the judicial rights had been carried out for almost 200 years. These rights went to the State in 1804 and were annulled in 1821. Bjørn Kaas died in 1581 at Bygholm, where he was a vasal at that time, and he was buried in Højslev Church.

His son Niels Kas, who inherited Stårupgård after his father had like him achieved a good education and especially extended his knowledge by attending European universities during some years. After his homecoming he married Birgitte Timmesdatter Rosenkrantz, but he died young in 1597 and only left a daughter. His widow had an affair with her late husband's nephew Gjord Kaas of Tårupgård which was considered an incest at that time, and she was executed in 1603 in Copenhagen.

Stårupgård came to her only daughter Anne Nielsdatter Kaas, who was married to Albert Rostrup of Sjelle Skovgård. He had trouble with his economy, but still in 1615 he was mentioned as the owner of Stårupgård. Shortly after he sold some of his debt to his brother Gunde Rostrup who owned Stårupgård in 1648. Albert Rostrup later sold some part of Stårupgård to his wife's paternal aunt fru Helvig Kaas. But in 1881 it came back to the old Kaas-family since kammerherre(chamberlain) G.H Kaas of Nedergård bought it, but in 1952 it was sold to Statens Jordlovsudvalg.From 1962 Stårupgård had a couple of owners who made a thorough restoration, but anyway it was still very decayed when art- and antique dealer Lis Messman and editor Jørgen Bram bought it in 1987. Jørgen Bram is connected to Stårupgård by family since his great grandfather and his grandfather owned Stårup in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. With support from the State the married couple has restored the estate, among other things the magnificent great hall which is brought back to its original look. The old Renaissance plan is now - with the support from Skive Kommune - the setting of an arts centre.

Stårupgård's rooms, the heavy wood work and the Renaissance colours are reconstructed in a restoration in the 1960s and a thourough repair in 1988-96. Below the western half is preserved a barrel vaulted long cellar and medieval walls. Here is now a café.

The main building of Stårupgård is reserved for antique exhibitions. Every room is furnished with distinguished antiques and furniture from the 16th up to the 19th century. Besides are uncovered paintings upon doors and walls. In the stable building is art-and antique exhibitions and a self-service café.

Link: Stårup Hovedgård

Source: Danske slotte og herregårde Nordvestjylland bd. 12; Trap Danmark Viborg amt;
Jytte Ortmann: Slotte og herregårde i Danmark; Politikens bog om Danmarks slotte og herregårde.
photo 2003: grethe bachmann


Besides the art and antiquities in the main building are also exhibitions in the large restored stable building.


The dungeon and the old cellar with a café/restaurant.

Names in the Middle Ages and 1600s:
Højslev Kirkeby (*1231 Hoghæslef, 1346 Høgesløf); Stårup (*1403 Starup, 1664 Staarup); Svenstrup (*1407 Swenstrup, 1524 Swen(d)strvp); Sejstrup (*1468 Seyerstrup); Halskov (*1356 Halskoff); Vinkel (*1456 Winnckell); Degnsgårde (1618 Deinnsgaardt); Vinkelplet(*1502 Winkel plette); Stårupgård (1438 Stadorphgardh); Bådsgård (*1468 Bodtzgaardt, 1483 Bordzgard); Bruddal (1492 Brwdedall); Skovmølle (*1468 Schoumølle).

Bådsgård was in the 1400s owned by the family Munk (of Kovstrup), Christen Munk sold his brotherpart to Las Bratze (Saltensee), who in 1488 conveyed it to hr. Erik Ottesen Rosenkrantz of Bjørnholm (+ 1503). Iver Munk's part was inherited by his son Jep Iversen Knogmose; before 1483 he conveyed it to above mentioned Erik Rosenkrantz, whose daughter's daughter Ingeborg Podebusk (+ 1542) is written to it in 1524; she was then a widow after hr. Tønne Parsberg of Harrested. In 1609 it was by Bendix Rantzau pawned to Axel Galt. In 1661 it was under Stårupgård, and it followed with S. until 1763, when Jacob Lerche sold it. Various owners.

Halskovgård is mentioned in 1437, it had belonged to a fru Ane and her children Niels Ovesen and Maye Ovesdatter. In 1680 it was under Stårupgård; in 1699 it was occupied by Frederik Christian Høeg (Banner) (+ 1744).

Majgård was owned by Jep Lagesen (Saltensee of Linde) and of Stårupgård (+ 1410), and came in the exchange after him to his children. In 1475-96 it was owned by a relative Las Bratze (Saltensee). In 1629 and 1631 it belonged to fru Helvig Kaas (Sparre-K.) of Stårupggård, but in 1634 it was conveyed to Hans Lindenov of Ørslevkloster and Strandet and followed these farms/manors later.

Bruddalgård was sold by Las Bratze (Saltensee) in 1492 to hr. Erik Ottesen Rosenkrantz; in 1524 it belonged to his daughter's daughter Ingeborg Podebusk (+ 1542).

Søndergård in Højslev was conveyed by fru Elne to Jep Lagesen (Saltensee) of Stårupgård, which her son Peder Trugelsen of Dommerby confirmed in 1364.

Svenstrup etc. and estate in Højslev parish was in 1407 by Rigild Puge and his wife Sophie Nielsdatter Rosenkrantz conveyed to the bishop in Viborg.

A farm Skallegård or Skvallegård in Østerris was in 1432 sold by Jens Frøst to Skt. Hans Kloster in Viborg. In the end of the 1400s is mentioned a building site Kollenade (1483 Kollenade), which was placed at Bådsgård.

Listed prehistorics: a longhill at Sejstrup, 129 m long, possibly a long dolmen with removed stones. 34 hills of which several are rather large: Store Vasehøj at Vinkel, two hills at Sejstrup and a hill in a group of four east of Højslev Kirkeby.
Demolished or destroyed: A long dolmen and 64 hills.

At Stårupgård is a kitchen midden. In a moor at Højslev Kirkeby were found ab. 1500 amber pearls, in another moor in the parish two necklaces from late Bronze Age.

Source:
Trap Danmark, Viborg amt, 1962; Niels Peter Stilling, Danmarks Slotte og Herregårde, 1998.


photo Højslev kirke & Stårupgård 2003: grethe bachmann