Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Vær church / Vær kirke, Voer herred, Skanderborg amt.


Vær Church, ab. 5 km east of Horsens
Vær sogn, Voer herred, Skanderborg amt.

The church in Vær has a Romanesque choir and late Gothic additions, a tower to the west and a porch to the south and a small extension to the north from the late 1700s, when the whole building went through comprehensive repair- and rebuild-works. The Romanesque building is in granite ashlars. The only original details are the two straight-edged doors, the south door is in use, the north door bricked- up. In the late Gothic period was built an octagonal vault in the choir and the arch was changed. It is possible that the nave also got vaults, which were removed later, since the room now is covered in a flat ceiling on a hollow moulding, probably from the late 1700s, when the walls were heightened with small bricks. The late Gothic tower is also marked by later rebuild. The bottom room which is furnished as a burial chapel, has a groined vault from ab. 1700 and in the weather vane on the pyramid spire is the year 1764.



The altar piece has sections from the 1699; it was given by baron and baroness Krag, but it was remade in the late 1700s; it is rural Louis Seize with a painting. A later painting from 1873 hangs in the church. Chalice from the 1800s. An oblat-box 1792 with a cast crucifix and initials of Jens Carl Krag-Juel-Vind and Mette Johanne Reedtz and a master-mark for Nicolai Brandt, Horsens. Candelabres in late Gothic shape. A small plaster crucifix in Baroque-style. Romanesque granite font of Horsens-type with primitive flat reliefs of lions and human figures. South German bowl ab. 1550-75 with the coat of arms of Habsburg. Pulpit 1587, a pretty early-Renaissance work with the coat of arms of Rosenkrantz. Chandelier 1695 given by Fr. Krag and Charlotte Amalie Griffenfeld. Painting from the 1700s with portrait of Luther and another cleric. Organ from the late 1700s placed upon a gallery in the northern extension. In both sides of the west end of the nave are galleries from the late 1700s with painting of the apostles. Bell from 1637 by the casters Francois Racle and Michel Vovllemot, whose works in other places in the country are signed F.Voillardi.

In the burial chapel in the tower room is written above the arch: "Here were Kragh and Griffenfeld buried and here is Danish blood and virtue honoured by posterity." There are four wooden coffins with the rigets kansler Peder Griffenfeld (+ 1699) and his wife Cathrine Nansen (+ 1672), the daughter Charlotte Amalie Griffenfeld (+ 1703) and her husband baron Fr. Krag (+ 1728). Upon Griffenfeld's coffin is a double coffin plate. Upon the upper plate, which can be opened, is a short epitaph, and underneath it hides a very long compassionate report of his sad fate. In the burial chamber under the nave are several burials. In the chapel epitaphs and gravestones/portrait stones (Krag, Rosenkrantz, Ramsland, Winther, Skriver).


Stensballe, at the beach

Stensballegård belonged in 1361 to Troels Jonsen (Benderup), 1386 and 1411 to the son hr. Jep Troelsen (Benderup), in 1420 fru Johanne, then the farm was inherited from father to son in the family Rosenkrantz: 1437 hr. Timme Nielsen (+ ab. 1457), rigsråd hr. Niels Timmesen (+ ab. 1485) and his widow Inger Gyldenstierne (+ ab. 1525), Axel Nielsen Rosenkrantz (+ 1551), Folmer Rosenkrantz (+ 1586) and Gert Rosenkrantz. The last mentioned died childless 1600 and his widow Anna Friis (of Haraldskær) was "endowed with S. from her dead husband" until she died 1628 or 1629 with a large debt. The farm was inherited by a son-in-law of Gert Rosenkrantz' sister Berte, Mogens Pax (+ 1642), who in 1634 gave his son Christoffer Pax of Rask (+ 1650) a deed of a third of S. Later he got the whole farm and in 1655 his widow Hilleborg Bille sold it and Værholm to Dorte Galde, but the deal must have been annulled, for in 1661 Hilleborg Bille sold S. and estate to Henrik Müller, who in 1673 by the king got the judicial rigths of Stensballe birch. Later owners: Gyldensparre, Krag, Krag-Juel-Vind-Arenfeldt; Krag-Juel-Vind Frijs. From 1951 grev Ditlev Ahlefeldt-Laurvig.

Værholm was a farm which belonged to the Crown, but it came in an exchange to the family Rosenkrantz of Stensballegård, who owned it 1485. In the exchange after Folmer Rosenkrantz ( + 1586) it came to his daughter Birgitte Rosenkrantz, married to Claus Nielsen Glambek of Rask (+ 1591), and their daughter Sidsel Glambek m. to Morten Pax of Rask (+ ab. 1646) sold it 1648 to Christoffer Pax of Stensballegård. His widow Hilleborg Bille sold 1655 V. and Stensballegård to Dorte Galde, but the deal must have been annulled, for in 1656 she sold V. to Dorte Urne (+ 1699), later it belonged to Henrik Müller, later to Fr. Krag.

Vær parish was in the last half of the 1700s known for its gardening, and vegetables from here were brought to the markets in both Horsens, Århus, Skanderborg and Vejle.

Names in the Middle Ages and 1600s: Vær (* 1340 Were); Stensballe (* 1361 Stensballe); Haldrup (*1475 Hallerup, 1511 Haldrupp); Blirup (1582 Blyrup, 1611 Blirup); Værholm (1485 Wære holm); Stensballegård (* 1465 Stenszballigaardt).

Listed prehistorics: A dolmen chamber in Brakør skov and a rather large Galgehøj southeast of Meldrup.
Demolished or destroyed: 9 hills. - Along the Stensballe Sound were found several small kitchen middens.

Source: Trap Danmark, Skanderborg amt, 1964.


photo Vær kirke 2003: grethe bachmann

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