Mesing church, Mesing kirke, Hjelmslev herred, Skanderborg amt.

The small church in Mesing has a Romanesque choir and nave and a late Gothic tower to the west and a porch to the south. The choir and nave are built in granite ashlars upon a bevel plinth. From original details are traceable in the wallwork the straight-edged north door of the nave, a window in the middle of each of the longwalls of the nave and the east and north window of the choir, all bricked. At the foot of the tower lie three monolith lintels from Romanesque windows. The southdoor is outside, but the Romanesque tympanum is preserved with lion figures around a tree.  In the late Middle Ages was built a cross vault with halfstone-ribs, one bay in the choir, two in the nave. At the same time the choir arch was changed into a pointed arch. The church has neo Romanesque windows. The narrow tower is open to the west in a high round arched arcade ("stilt"). It is built in monk bricks with a spread use of boulder, and it has stair gables to north and south above the point arched peepholes. The large porch in granite ashlars, boulder and monk bricks has a flat curved door in a point arched mirror, above the door is inserted a sundial with Fr. V.'s monogram and the year 1756.

Canopy-altarpiece in Renaissance from ab. 1600, in the big field a newer crucifixion-picture upon canvas, upon the top-field allegoric pictures from ab. 1800. Altar chalice from 1684, by Bartholomæus Stur in Århus, acc. to inscription given by Ober Förster Petter Zeibiegh and wife Margaretha von Gabbels, whose coat of arms and initials are on the cup. Two pair of candelabres from respectively 1600 and 1952. A small Romanesque granite font with lion reliefs. Baptismal dishes: 1) ab. 1550, south German, 2) 1688, in pewter, with initials SKE and AIDN. Pulpit 1613 with carvings in stiff high Renaissanc and the name Rasmus Jensen. Pews from ab. 1900. Organ in a gallery in the west end of the nave. Bell 1928 (de Smithske jernstøberier), recast from en older bell by Jens Asmus Smit 1591, which inscription is repeated on the new bell.

The monks at Kalvø (later at Øm kloster) gave ab. 1168 10 mark silver land in Mesing to Niels Nødd and Glip of Åbo.

In Mesing is a small hjemstavnsmuseum (local museum), mainly with old utensils from the district. It was established in 1936 in the old rytterskole(military), a halftimbered building which this year was moved upon rolls to its present place and given to shoemaker Ansgar Andersen Horn whose collection got its location here. 

In the parish was a village Ravndal (1287 Rauffndall). There were in the 1500s feuds between Ringkloster and the Mesing-farmers about the right of the land of the disappeared village. The mill dam of Ravndal is still traceable at Møllebækken 2 km south of Mesing.

Listed prehistorics: in Illerup ådal is a 35 m long dolmen with a chamber without cover stone. 10 hills in Sønderskov, one rather large.
Demolished: one hill.  

Names in the Middle Ages: Mesing (1477 Mesingh).

Source: Trap Danmark, Skanderborg amt, 1964.

photo 2009: grethe bachmann

           

Finderup church / Finderup kirke, Nørlyng herred, Viborg amt

Finderup church, 10 km southwest of Viborg
Finderup sogn, Nørlyng herred, Viborg amt.

Interior


Pews from the 1653.


old door lock

Finderup Church is placed 10 km southwest of the Jutland town Viborg, where the Danish kings once were crowned. The white chalked late Romanesque nave and chorus are built in raw field stones with brick built corners. The western extension, the porch and the tower are from 1791. From original details is only the round-arched door, visible from the outside. The choir has a late Gothic vault, while the nave has beamed ceilings.

The altar piece is originally a joinery from the 1600s, in a remake the middle field was removed; upon the backside are remains from an earlier altar piece. The pulpit is placed upon the communion table with access for the priest through the middle field of the altar piece, which was remade again in the 1860s. The paintings from the sidewings are now at the National Museum . The altar candelabres from 1653 has the coat of arms of the vasal Frands Pogwisch and wife. A late Gothic choir arch-crucifix hangs upon the wall. A Romanesqu granite font. The pulpit is from ab. 1616 with rich carvings in the style of the Roskilde-master Brix Snedker. The pews in the upper section of the church are from 1653, at the entrance is a single panel and the year 1611.


Finderup church with the typical Styltetårn, (a tower on stilts)
where the bell is

Names in the Middle Ages and 1600s:
Finderup (* 1277 Finderup); Hellerup (1541 Hillerup, -rop); Fløjgårde (1541 Flogord, 1664 Fløygaard).

Listed prehistorics: 26 hills, one rather large at Hellerup.
Demolished or destroyed: 61 hills, mainly around Finderup and Agerskov.


Landscape at Finderup.

St. Cecilia's Night 22. November 1286 king Erik Glipping was murdered when he after a hunt rested in a barn at Finderup. After the murder his body was brought to Viborg. The barn was burnt down and a penance chapel in red bricks , 25 m long and 9,4 m broad, was built shortly after the killing, probably already in 1287. This chapel stood until the middle of the 1500s where it was demolished by the order of a King's Letter of 23. December 1551.

Upon the place of the chapel have been found a foundation stone and medieval graves and skeletons. The place is west of the present church and close to the old vicarage's placement. Here is raised a memorial granite cross by initiative of Thor Lange. Upon the gable of Falle Skovhus in the forest south west of Finderup is an inscription: ' St Cæcilia Nat 1286 gjæstede Kong Erik Glipping dette hus.' (St. Cecilia's Night 1286 king Erik Glipping visited this house'.)

According to tradition the common understanding is that the ruins by Thor Lange's memorial cross origin from a chapel. A recent opinion is that the present church is the chapel rebuilt and that the ruins origin from the earliest parish church. NB: The last opinion seems logical since there are graves and skeletons in the area natural for a church area and not natural for a penance chapel in memory of a murdered king.

Source: Trap Danmark, Viborg amt, 1962



photo Finderup kirke og landskab 130506: grethe bachmann