Borbjerg church / Borbjerg kirke Vestjylland

Borbjerg kirke, Google earth

Borbjerg kirke lies 11 km northeast of Holstebro.

The big, partly whitewashed church in Borbjerg village is marked by rebuild and extensions in the 1400s. The original Romanesque church is built in granite ashlars in the second half of the 1100s. The choir and nave stand upon a bevelled plinth. From Romanesque details are kept both entrances, both with tympanons with a cross in high relief. The men's door is bricked-up while the women's door is in use via the northern porch. Two monolit-lintels from the nave's Romanesque windows are inserted in the cross arms

In the middle of the 1400s the church was extended with cross arms on both sides. They are built in granite ashlars and in the upper sections in monk bricks. Later came the Gothic tower to the west with north-south gables. According to West Jutland custom-the porch belongs like the tower to late Gothic and it is like the tower built in monk bricks.


During the extension of the choir and the cross arms were built Gothic vaults. They are whitewashed with no trace of frescoes. The  nave is covered with a flat beamed ceiling with a striking and well-composed painting from 1913 in winding decorations on red and grey ground.

Borbjerg kirke, Google earth

The altar decoration consists of two very special sections, a frontale on the communion table with wooden reliefs from the middle of 1200s. The front is carved in three oak-planks put together in one. It is a remarkable work and it was probably made by a joiner- master once in the 1200s. He had seen the golden altars in Sahl and Stadil church, but made his own work in wood with multicolours and metaldecorations. After a restoration of the frontale in 1926 it now stands with a powerful gilt. The motifs are biblical and some of the reliefs follows closely a section in the golden altar in Sahl church.

There are three styles in the frontale and the altarpiece, the front of the communion table is Romanesque, the altarpiece is high Gothic alabast placed in a Renaissance frame work.

Borbjerg kirke, wikipedia

The pretty decorated altarpiece is a brilliant carving from the beginning of the 1600s with pillars, angels, hermer and everything else from the Renaissance, but in the frame work is inserted a very unique alabast altarpiece from the beginning of the 1400s. It is an English import-work, probably from Nottingham  Seven reliefs show the legend about Sct. George (DK: Sct Jørgen)
Three pretty wooden figures in the arcade field in the upper section of the altarpiece are from another late Gothic altarpiece from the 1400s.


The priest-chair on the left side of the altar has a funny openwork Baroque relief. "the apple pickers",  Adam and Eve surrounded by vigorous paradisetrees. From the other inventory is a simple granite Romanesque font from the start of the church building. The pulpit is dated 1625 and is decorated with very simple Evangelist-paintings. The church-connection to the manor Rydhave in the annex-parish Ryde north of Borbjerg parish can be seen on some manor pews, and in the tower room is established an open funeral with a distinguished sandstone sarchophagus for kammerjunker Gert Levetzau (+1791) of Rydhave.

A unique Baroque epitaph from 1683 hangs in the southern cross arm. The inscription is a memory of the priest Knud Poulsen's son, Anders Knudsen Borbjerg /1657-1683), who died in Copenhagen before he finished his studies. Two landscape paintings below show a vue over Copenhagen and a motif from France

Borbjerg kirke, wikipedia

The church has a very high situation and is surrounded by a very large church yard, which mirrors the old village's town-like development. The church yard is closely planted and surrounded by big trees. An avenue leads from the porch to the late Medieval portal with a driving gate and small gate.










You can see fotos from church and inventory:

Start with this link


Borbjerg kirke

then choose foto


Source: Danmarks kirker Niels Peter Stilling, 2000
photo: Google earth and wikipedia . 

Nørholm church / Nørholm kirke, Himmerland

Nørholm kirke(foto Google Earth) Add caption

 











Nørholm Kirke in Aalborg Kommune lies 9 km east of the town Nibe 

Nørholm church is one of the oldest granite churches in North Jutland . It was built ab. 1150 in well-carved ashlars above a bevelled plinth  The Romanesque section consists of choir and nave. The east wall of the choir is partly renewed with supporting pillars. The rebuild took place ab. 1400 in connection to the built of crossvaults in the choir and demolition of the original apse.  Tower and porch were added later. The Gothic additions and the choir gable are whitewashed, while the other ashlar walls stand exposed.

Nøholm kirke , Google earth

The altarpiece has a special attraction. It is a brilliant wood carving in late Gothic from ab. 1510,   richly decorated and gilt, probably from Claus Berg's Odense-workshop. One of the figures on the altarpiece is a kneeling bishop Jens Andersen Beldenak ab. 1468-1537) , who gave the altarpiece to the church.  His coat of arms is held up by a bearded barbarian who is quite different from the  other and very realistic biblical figures in the piece.  The women are dressed in the fashion from the early 1500s, and they are all looking very  healthy with fine red cheeks. Knud den Hellige  (Knud 4.)  is one of the figures in the sidewings, which suggests that the altarpiece came from the Odense workshop.Two wings kept on the National Museum belong supposedly  to the altarpice which then had five wings. The altarpice was possibly made for Sct Knud's kirke in Odense, and it is not clear why it ended up in Nørholm kirke.


The nave has a flat beamed ceiling contrary to the choir which has a Gothic vault. The choir arch has distinctive corbels.  The communion table is bricked. It had earlier a Renaissance front. The altar candelabres are from the 1600s. In the choir are frescoes with winding plants   In the northwall of the choir are built in parts of a late Gothic monstrance cupboard, the only of that kind in Himmerland. In the windows grows a wild plant. The granite baptismal font has very large  sepals. The round foot is newer.

The pulpit was given by Povl Nielsen Kraas and wife Maren Bertelsdatter Kierulf in 1632. According to the upper small fields it was decorated in 1643  The big fields are decorated with the Evangelists. The big fields are divided by hermer with downhanging fruit bunches. Upon the sounding board is a coat of arms of the families Krag and Høeg. The church has two chandeliers and two bells. One bell was made by an anonymous bell caster in 1645, it was given to the church by Niels Krag and wife Jytte Høeg of Trudsholm in gratitude for the peace-closing with Sweden at Brømsebro in 1645. The other and smaller bell was cast by Rasmus Lauridsen in 1585 It was given to the church by Ejler Grubbe of Lystrup.

In the west end of the church is a gallery from the 1700s with apostel-figures

view to Limfjorden/ the country road runs along limfjorden

From other inventory are two epitaphs of aristocratic families, one for  Mads Sørensen and Maren Povlsdatter. In the painting they are together with three daughters and two sons - and three dead babies. The inscription says that the epitaph was set up in 1664 "in his 52th and her 37th year of age" The other epitaph is set up for Søren Bertelsen Kierulf in 1659. It was given by the widow Maren Jensdatter, who was depicted together with her late husband and her new husband Urban Andresen Giedzmann whom she married in 1660. The last mentioned's gravestone of red granite  lies in the church floor in front ot the choir.





See fotos of the church and inventory. 
Start with this link:

Norholm Kirke

then you choose Eksterne Kilder Kort til Kirken
choose foto

source: Danmarks Kirker, Niels Peter Stilling, 2000; Aalborg Stift, kirkehistorie.  
photo: Google Earth

Nølev church / Nølev kirke, Hads herred, Århus amt.

photo stig bachmann nielsen naturplan.dk

Nølev church has a Romanesque choir and nave, a late Gothic, very changed porch to the south, a sacristy at the east side of the choir from the late 1800s and a tower to the west from 1952. The Romanesque building in raw granite has no visible plinth and no characteristic details, except the straight edged south door, which is in use, while the north door is only traceable - and a bricked-up round arched window, which is an inside niche in the east wall of the choir, and a similar window, which is vaguely visible in the north wall of the choir. The round choir arch is unusually broad, but it is possibly the original. Both nave and choir have beamed ceilings. The porch is built in monk bricks, it is possibly late medieval in its base, but the gable is re-newed in the 1800s. The gable-tip of the nave to the west is re-walled in 1808 -  it has iron  initials C. F. H. R. (Chr. Fr. von Holstein Rathlou), seen from the middle storey of the tower. In the late 1800s a small sacristy in bricks was built at the east side of the choir.  The tower with gables north-south is built in 1952, possibly upon foundations of an earlier tower.

photo stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk

When Nølev church was restored in 1984, frescoes were found from various periods, only five late medieval inauguration crosses in the choir have been kept. The altarpiece is an unsual exampe of a socalled "katekismus-tavle". It consists of joined panelpieces with painted scriptures - here they are replaced by paintings from the 1700s. This altarpiece is the only of this type in Jutland. It was taken down in 1911 and put on the loft, in 1953 it was placed upon the northwall of the nave and in 1984 - after the restoration - it was again used as an altarpiece; in the nave hangs the old altar painting from 1902, which was used as an altarpiece in the intermediate years.

from the granite font

late medieval inauguration cross

Altar chalice from ab. 1700. Late Gothic candelabres from ab. 1520 upon lion figures. A strange Romanesque granite font, almost barrel-shaped, with primitive reliefs, biblical and indefinable animals, made by the same stone mason as the choir arch tympanum in Randlev church. A new bowl. (The font is deep and have been used without bowl). The pulpit is a fine Renaissance work, probably by Peder Jensen Kolding, from ab. 1635 with contemporary paintings and sounding board. In the middle storey of the tower is a bier from 1745 and a model of the church's bellframe, which disappeared when the tower was built.

There are no listed prehistorics in the parish, but there was a dolmen just north of Nølev village, a stone grave a little to the east and 3 hills.  

Source: Trap Danmark, Århus amt, 1963
Source altarpiece in the church: the website of Saksild and Nølev church.

photo 11 February 2012: grethe bachmann and stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk