Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Strandby church / Strandby kirke, Gislum herred, Aalborg amt.


Strandby Church, 18 km south of Løgstør
Strandby sogn, Gislum herred, Aalborg amt.

The impressive high-placed church in Strandby has a Romanesque choir and nave and a western extension. The tower and the porch are from the end of the Middle ages. The Romanesque building parts are in granite ashlars. From original details are the high choir-arch preserved, the north and east window of the choir, two windows in the north side of the nave with simple monolite cover stones and two portals of the nave, both decorated with a simple thympanum. The north door is walled. A Romanesque coverstone is placed on the church yard. In a renovation of the roof were in 1904 found 12 lydpotter (sounding pots) in clay, 6 on each side, walled with the hollows to the room inside. The tower room which has a broad, original pointed arch to the nave, was from the beginning furnished for an over-vault, this was done in a restoration in 1954. In the nave is a beamed ceiling, in the choir a late Gothic cross-vault. The porch is mainly built in monk bricks.

Altar piece in high Renaissance from ab.1600. In the big field a painting from 1861, sign. F.C. Rodschou, Aalborg; in the side fields earlier paintings, in top field pietistic symbols. Wafer box given 1745 by Niels Povlsen and Gertrud Hofman of Gunderupgård, whose gifts to the church mark the interior; they gave the altar rails , ab. 1740, the staircase to the pulpit, a door-wing to the porch fr. 1743 and three chandeliers ( fr. 1724 and 1725) and probably other inventory pieces from the same period. In the south western corner of the choir is a well-preserved 1700s confessional. Large Romanesque granitefont with a smooth basin. Baptismal bowl , a Nürnberg work fr. 1550-1600. Sounding board from 1600s at the loft. A pulpit with old paintings in the archade-fields was given in 1639 by Axel Juul of Bjørnsholm. A herskabsstol (Master and Mistress) pews from 1600s. Else new, closed pews with simple gables.

Three large tablets from ab. 1750 with the names of Viborg bishops, rural deans in Gislum Herred (district) and priests in the parish since the reformation. Upon the wall by fattigbøssen (collection box) is a table with inscription from 1741, above this an inscription-cartouche with a small Baroque crucifix. Two church ships, one impressive model of Chr. IV's war ship "Justitia", given by Fr. IX in 1951, the other a model of the full-rigged ship "København." Organ in the tower room with painted panels, originating from a gallery which was put up in 1741, when the bottom part of the tower was furnished as a grave chapel for Niels Povlsen and family. In 1954 the room became a part of the church and the coffins were moved to a crypt. A church bell from 1954 -and a bell from 1500s without inscription is placed in the porch.


Ertebølle Hoved
Mini Museum & Stenaldercenter


Names in the Middle Ages and 1600s:
Strandby (* ab. 1200 Strandby); Tandrup (* 1477 Tandorp); Myrhøj (* 1477 Myøre Høy, 1373 Myrhøf); Grønnerup (1442 Grønnerop, 1610 Westergrønderup); Risgårde (* 1477 Riisgardt); Ertebølle (* 1477 Edbøll, 1633 Ettbøele); Strandbygårde (* 1435 Strandbyegaardt); Trend (1664 Thrend Mølle); Vestergårde (1633 Westergaard); Sjørupgårde( 1464 Sørupp); Gunderupgård
(* 1250s Gundrop); Kærsgård (1573 Kiersgaard); Vadgård (* 1477 Wadegardt); Lillemølle (1688 Lille Mølle boel).

At Vadgård was a chapel. A sacred spring Kapelkilden nearby.

Gunderupgård was in 1443 owned by Ture Ranke, whose widow fru Anne 1470 gave estate in Fredbjerg to Farsø Church, but in 1577 it belonged to Vitskøl Kloster and came at the reformation with V.K. to the Crown. 1573 the kloster was exchanged with some estate, among this Gunderupgård and Strandbygård to rigsråd Bjørn Andersen Bjørn , + 1583, who left them to his daughters Sidsel and MargretheBjørnsdatter Bjørn, who in 1592 was widow after Jørgen Ernst Worm. Sidsel Bjørnsdatter married in 1588 Godslev Budde of Rødslet, who made Gunderupgård a herregård (manor). Later he sold it to Rigborg Arenfeldt who in 1633 bought the other half of Strandbygård from Johan Brockenhuus. Rigborg Arenfeldt was married to Axel Juul, + 1664. Various owners up til present: Hofman, de Poulson, Rosencrone, Kjerulf. In 1920 P.M.Toft who outparcelled the estate. The main parcel has only 24 ha.(1961)

Strandbygård belonged in the beginnning of the 1400s probably to Dyonisius Pedersen Galskyt and after him to his son Jep Dyonisiussen Galskyt, but it seems that S. at the same time belonged to Laurids Jepsen Saltensee of Linde, and in 1433 the owner was Laurids Nielsen Saltensee of Linde, in 1443 his son Mikkel Lauridsen Saltensee, married to Jep Dyionisiussen's widow, who still in 1499 is the owner of S. But before 1477 it came to Vitskøl Kloster (= Bjørnsholm) and followed this estate for a long time. In 1778 it was a part of Gunderupgård.

Kærsgård was in 1552 part of Vitskøl Kloster and came in 1573 with this to Bjørn Andersen Bjørn. Still in 1778 it was a farm and a part of Gunderupgård.

Ørnebjerggård came with Strandbygård and Kærsgård to Bjørn Andersen Bjørn in 1573.

Vadgård was in 1477 part of Vitskøl Kloster It was a vicarage from 1564 till 1869 when the parish priest moved to a vicarage in Farsø.

Kongens jagthus (hunting lodge) in Trend. Trend skov, where a big part is a heath, was in 1937 bought to crownprince Frederick and crownprincess Ingrid on their two years anniversary. A hunting lodge was built and inaugurated in 1939. All expense was a gift from the Danish people.

In the meadow at Gunderupgård close south of Trend Aa (water stream) is a listed castle bank /motte. According to a document from 1740 Godslev Budde established the place, but he gave up building there. Later it seems that he built Gunderupgård after the same plan about 2 km to the west.


There are only weak traces of the kitchen midden
Listed prehistorics: 2 longhills and 53 hills, several large, at Trendgård a group of 12 hills, among these Trend Storhøj; close to the hunting lodge in Trend Skov is the 6 m high Storhøj, Simonshøj and another hill in Trend Skov and Torshøj north of this; 4 Urhøje which together with hills in Farsø parish form a group of 8 hills; two Tvillinghøje south of and Præstehøj west of Tandrup; Grønhøj and Skelhøj at Risgårde.
Listed is also an Iron Age stone cist grave at Myrhøj and the rests of Ertebølle-køkkenmødding, which was one of the largest in Denmark, originally 140 m long, 20 m broad and with a thickness of 2 m; during the years 1893-97 a large part of it was thoroughly excavated and examined by the National Museum and it has since given name to an era of early Stone Age.

Demolished or destroyed: 29 hills; in one hill at Gunderupgård were found a dagger, a paalstav (special bronze axe) and a spear from early Bronze Age.
Settlements from early Iron Age are known from Myrhøj and Tandrup Skole. At Grønnerup was found a piece of a large circular gold jewelry from Viking Period.

A mini-museum close to the cliff describes about the kitchen midden and the geology of the area. A few hundred meters from here is the exhibition of the Stenaldercenter which describes the nature in and around Ertebølle ab. 6-7000 years ago and how people lived, furthermore are several archaeological findings etc. A reconstructed settlement gives examples of how the huts from that period might have looked, and the visitors can see how flint was made into axes and other tools, and they can participate in activities like archery and skin tanning etc.

Source: Trap Danmark, Aalborg amt, 1961.


photo Strandby kirke 9. april 2009: grethe bachmann

No comments: