Tyrsted church/ Tyrsted kirke, Vejle amt

photo: Google Earth







Tyrsted kirke, Hatting herred, Vejle amt.



Tyrsted church lies about 300 meter south of Tyrsted village - in 65 meter's height  upon a big slope which goes down to Horsens Fjord. The church was always solely situated and visible in the landscape. The village is now urban area, but the church has kept its free location  - and from the church yard is still a view of the landscape. The church yard is surrounded by double, grassy granite boulder dikes. The old main entrance is a driving gate to the east. The present entrance is a port with a gate from ab. 1900, closed by iron grating wings between tiled pillars in red bricks.


The church was heavily restored in 1866 and later in the 1800s. Later changes and additions are all in monk bricks. A cornice of yellow bricks has been added under the roof which was raised in 1866. Tyrsted church was restored again in 1994. The floors in the church are square with yellow and grey tiles from 1866-67, in the choir they were re-newed in 1994 with pink tiles. The roof is tiled, except the choir has a leaden roof . The church was in 1986 given a colour scheme when the furnishings became a green background colour, supplemented with red, black, white and a little blue.

The church walls are raised upon a low, but strongly eroded plinth in calcareous tufa, which is visible to the north and east, but else is covered by the terrain. The northdoor is engulfed in a large round-arched opening, the bricked southdoor is only vaguely traceable under the westernest window of the nave.

The church is a Romanesque building of calcareous tufa, consisting of choir and nave. The masonry is rather disturbed, original details are the round-arched windows which have stood since 1903 as exterior niches.

Around 1500s a tower was added and a porch in the north, and at the same time vaulting was built in the choir and the nave. In the choir is one and in the nave three cross vaults.

The heavy tower is almost as broad as the church, it has four storeys -  the middle storey is divided in two - the old masonry is kept to the north, partly also to the east, while the other facades are face-walled with monk bricks in 1866-67. The tower room is conncected to the church in a  broad pointed arcade. There is access to the upper storeys via a staircase in the northern wall .
 
The porch has in the gable kept parts of a late Gothic glare decoration. In the porch is walled-in a tombstone for the pilgrim Peter Kæller (the 1300s) -  and the church is by many used as the start of a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella. It is possible to visit the church in the day hours - or else by appointment with the church office. The pilgrim stone is Gotland limestone - and it has a beautifully carved figure of the pilgrim Peter Kæller. .



Inventory.
 
The only thing contemporary with the building is the simple Romanesque granite font. A south German baptismal dish is  from ab. 1550, but only came to the church after 1700. The altar candlesticks were donated in 1693 by Anna Maria von Offenberg, countess of Frijsenborg. Almost all remaining furnishings came with a radical restoration around 1866-67. This applies to the neo-Gothic altarpiece, the altar rail, a crucifix, the pews and the hymn boards. The altar plate from 1911 was supplied by Rasmus Jensen, Horsens and bears the donor's inscription of the church-owner, count Mogens Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs.

A wafer with the mark Sterling from 1986. An armchair for the priest from 1886 in the choir. Three chandeliers from 1913 in Baroque style 1913.

A church bell, cast 1895 by Jørgen Stallknecht, Horsens. A bell from 1425-50 has casting mark for N. Eskildsen. It is now in the National  Museum.


Gravestone ab. 1620 for Rasmus Hansøn, priest and parson, with his dear wife Karen Iensdatter.
Some cast iron crosses in the church yard from the 1700-1800s. 

 Source: Danmarks Kirker, National Museum.

Karup church / Karup kirke, Lysgård herred, Viborg amt.

Karup Church, 20 km southwest of Viborg
Karup sogn, Lysgård herred, Viborg amt.

Karup church is a late Gothic longhouse in monk bricks to which was added a porch to the south in 1940. The doors in the western section are the originals (round-arched with a point-arched frame), the south door still in use, the north door walled-in. Ab. 1900 were above the two doors placed two fine Romanesque granite-tympana from an earlier church, the north door with a relief of Christ, the south door with a cross. The white-washed building got its present look after 1744. Karup was in the Middle Ages a famous place of pilgrimage with a sacred spring, visited by pilgrims and diseased in large numbers; rich gifts poured to the church. The origin of the church's reputation of being sacred was due to the legend about a blind man, who bathed in the spring and got his sight back. Then a chapel was built and later a church. After the reformation the church was falling into decay. In 1714 the tower was destroyed by lightning, and in 1744 the choir, cross-nave and the tower were demolished, and the present east gable was built with a place for the church bell.


The north door with Romanesque tympanum

The communion table is in monk bricks with a round-arched opening through the table. The table panel has arcade-fields with carved biblical monograms and the year 1601. The altarpiece from 1745 with paintings; in the postament field is an inscription saying that Steen Jørgensen of Aunsbjerg was the giver of the church-restoration in 1744 and paid the altarpiece and the new decorations on pulpit, parish clerk-chair and the altar in 1745. Three large figures from a late Gothic altar piece were placed in a new cupboard and is now in Viborg Domkirke. Other saint-figures are at Viborg Museum.


A simple gable


The north door.

Altar chalice with an inscription: that king Frederik in 1652 gave this chalice to Karup instead of another one. Under the bottom are engraved coat of arms and "Mogens Høg". The king took the other chalice , which had an insription from 1486, to his kunstkammer; it is now at the National Museum. Late Gothic altar candelabres. From a late Gothic monstrans-cupboard the spire is now at Viborg Museum. Rectangular altar rails from 1940. The basin of the baptismal font with four roughly carved male heads upon a primitive foot in boulder is hardly Romanesque;it was probably originally a secular trough. A granite aspersorium on its original place, east of the south door, roughly carved. Pulpit from ab. 1700 , now without pictures or inscriptions, ornaments from 1940. A heavy iron-bound money block from ab. 1600. Church bell recast 1913 at Åbyhøj Støberi. The old bell, which was cast in 1525, cracked during the funeral ringing for king Fr. VIII; its reliefs were out-sawed and came to the National Museum. Another bell was according to Pont. Atlas transferred to Bording church. Gravestones: a portrait stone from 1480s in the choir for Johannes Avonis, presbyter et provisor, he still lived in 1489.


Karup Å

Names in the Middle Ages and 1600s:
Karup (*1419 Karup); Vallerbæk (1578 Vallebeck); Bøvllund (1578 Byglundt, 1608 Bøgllundt); Majlund (1683 Mayelund).

The sacred spring was re-discovered in 1906 southeast of the church, close north of Karup Å, where once was a small chapel.

In connection to the church was a hospital, the priest was often the principal. The hospital is mentioned in 1480 and it is hardly earlier than the church. Among the principals are Johannes Avonis 1480, hr. Anders Nielsen 1484-87, hr. Jens Ouszen 1489, hr. Peder Clementsen 1511, hr. Mourids Poulsen 1525 and hr. Søren in 1537. Soon after 1537 it was probably abolished.

A chapel at Karup is mentioned in 1482, maybe the same which is named St. Margrethe's Kapel, which supposedly was identical to the Grå Kapel (Torning parish).

Listed prehistorics: 9 hills, besides some hills on the border to Frederiks and Resen parish. Two near the north-border are rather large.
Demolished or destroyed: 15 hills. At Vallerbæk was found a bunch of weapons from late Roman Iron Age.

Source: Trap Danmark, Viborg amt. 1962.


photo Karup 2004/2006: grethe bachmann