Fjelsø kirke / Fjelsø church Himmerland

Fjelsø kirke, Rinds herred, Viborg amt
ab. 20 km north of Viborg 


The Romanesque Fjelsø church is placed high in the northern part of Fjelsø village. The nave and the choir were built in carved ashlars in the 1100s, the whitewashed tower in the 1400s and the porch in 1847.  The north door is bricked up  In the brick-up section is a relief of a Romanesque male head, which turns upside down. In the southern wall of the choir is also a relief of a male head turning upside down. On purpose ? Superstition ? Or a coincidence!

male head upside down

Digitalis by church dike

The altar was originally a large carved granite block. The block has been en-heightened and covered with a wooden panel. The paintings in front of the altar was made in the beginning of the 1700s. Parts of the altar date from the 1500s, but the main part is from the 1700s where it was given to the church as a gift from Christen Sørensen.

Two biblical altar paintings were made in 1895 by the artist Luplau Jansen.

male head upside down

A chalice and a dish for the Holy Communion  were given to the church in the 1600s by the priest Jens Nielsen Brasen, which name is also engraved in the candlesticks with the year 1666. On the foot of the candlesticks is also the name Jens Poulsen. It is said that he gave them to the church as a penance for some damage which happened in a negligent burning of  heaths in Vesterbølle. The present altar jar and wafer box were given by parson Hans Nielsen Højgaard in the years 1916-43.

The granite font is probably as old as the church itself. The baptismal dish is rather new but an earlier dish from the 1700s hangs upon the wall in the choir. The oldest part of the pulpit origins from the 1500s with picture--fields in two storeys. The decorations were made in 1736.
The priest tablet is new and was made in 1944 with names of the priests since the Reformation. The priests before the Reformation are not known.

The ship model "Nordstjernen" hangs in the nave. It is lent out from Gedsted church. The altar gobelin is from November 1981 and was designed by the teacher-couple Ruth and Holger Møllebjerg, Hvalpsund. It was embroidered by local people

The church bell (with no inscription )  is from the late 1200s.

source. Flemming Kloster (Erik Horskjær (red.) De danske kirker Gads forlag 1968. 




photo and text August 2015: grethe bachmann 

Eltang church/ Eltang kirke, Brusk herred, Vejle amt.

Eltang church, wikipedia

Eltang church lies upon a sloping hill surrounded by granite boulder dikes with a bricked driving port and a gate. The church has choir, nave, porch to the south and a tower at the western gable. The choir and nave are Rmanesque, built in raw boulders with carved corner ashlars and a profiled plinth. Upon the north side are kept two Romanesque windows. The north door is bricked up, it is seen as a glare. The south door is still in use. The choir gable, where earlier were three bricked up windows, was rewalled in 1943. The tower is a late medieval addition in monk bricks with a pitched roof, a vaulted bottom room and a pointed arch towards the nave. The church was restored several times. Three sides of the tower are re-bricked,  maybe in 1788. The nave and porch have also in recent times been equipped with wooden cornices . and bricked dentils. The choir arch is extended inside and is covered in a plaster ceiling, while the nave has a grey painted beamed ceiling.

Eltang church, Google earth.

The altarpiece in Renaissance from ab. 1600 has foot and top piece, both with outsawed sidewings, in the main  field is a newer painting by G. Schleissner 1877, given by N. Th. Flensborg. The altarpiece was decorated in 1925 with silver and gold upon a redbrown base. Upon the communion table stand two sets of  altar candelabres 1) late Baroque with winding shafts (without inscription)  and 2) given 1934 in memory of N. Th.Flensborg and wife. A Romanesque font in granite with arcade-motifs upon the belly. A pulpit from the late 1500s in Renaissance with Tuscany ornamental columns framing round arched fields, the decotation is from 1925 like the altarpiece. A wellkept large choir arch crucifix  from late Middle Ages on the south wall. A plank is kept from a gallery, which was removed in 1900; it says that it was put up in 1686 "in the times of Hr. Peder Clausen Emmeløf". The present pews are new from the late 1800s. At the south door an old, high iron bound money block in oak. Series pastorum upon the western wall. In the porch two gravestones  1 ) Christen Jørgensen Bul (+ 1652),  2) parish priest Jørgen Hansen Seidelin (+ 1780). The church bell was cast in 1588 by Mathias Benninck.

Ellinggård, owner in 1960s N.C. Sandager.The main building might origin from 1787.

Nørre Stenderupgård belonged in 1773 (then named Stenderup avslgård) to justitsråd Søren H. Seidelin  /+ 1798), later to mayor in Horsens Andreas Flensburg (+ 1790),  from 1782 to his son Th. Flensburg (+ 1830) who was priest in the parish, from 1816 to his son Andreas N. Flensburg (+ 1843), whose widow Christina Birg. Monrad in 1844 married merchant in Århus, borgerkaptajn C. Bentzen (+ 1857), whereafter her brother-in-law Niels Thygesen Flensburg (+ 1881) bought the farm in an auction, which came to his son Christian August Flensborg,  in 1893 to his brother Andreas Vilhelm Flensburg, and in 1899 his son Niels Thygesen Flensburg. In 1933 it was sold to J.N.Nielsen (+ 1955), whose widow fru Martine Nederby Nielsen in 1962 transferred it to their son J.Nederby Nielsen.

Hr. Jens Lavesen deeded in 1308 for 5 1/2 mark silver land in Eltang field to the brothers Peder and Gøde, who at the same timed was deeded 2 farms in Stenderup ny Niels Tap.

In 1947 was in the outdried Eltang vig (cove) digged out the rests of an early medieval ship, which is now in the city Kolding.

The farms Østergård (1436 Østhergardt) and Vestergård (1436 Vesthergaardt) were owned by Inger Hermansdatter (Pennov), who in 1436 deeded them to Ribe Chapter. In the parish is also mentioned in 1683 the farm Vesterskov.

view to Gudsø vig, Google earth.

Upon a field in Lilballe were in 1875 found 65 coins, mainly Danish, German and Netherlandish., the latest coin was from Frederik III 1653.

In a clearance in an alder moor in Eltang was in 1860 found a bottle under a big stone with 611 coins from 1694-1734.

During digging in a peat bog in Eltang were in 1870 found 85 coins Hanseatic witten (21) and

silver finding Eltanggård, Kolding lexicon.

hulpenninge (44) English sterlings (20) and 5 little gilt silver jewelry, all put down ab. 1360-70.

At Eltanggård was in 1941 discovered a considerable silver finding from the time of the Swedish wars.

Listed prehistorics: a long dolmen without chamber in Sletteskov, the chamber stone was after Frederik VI's order used for Gudsø bridge. Furthermore two hills at Eltanggård.

Demolished or destroyed:one dolmen and 21 hills, mainly in the southeastern and eastern section of the parish.      

In Gudsø vig(cove) were in the mud several prehistorics from Ertebøllekulturen, among these an entire clay lamp.

A fragment of a runestone, which was found near Nr. Stenderup, is now at the National Museum, the short inscription, which seems medieval, cannot be interpreted.









Names from the Middle Ages : Eltang (1231 Ælmtungæ, 1325 Ælmætungh); Nr. Stenderup (1308 Stendorpmark, 1484 Stenderup); Lilballe (1459 Lilbaly).



Source: Trap Danmark, Vejle amt, 1964.

photo from Google earth and wikipedia.