Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Hedensted church/ Hedensted kirke, Hatting herred, Vejle amt.

The large church in Hedensted was mentioned for the first time in 1297, when bishop Jens Assersen of Århus gave it to Århus Chapter, which still owned it in 1640. The church has apse, choir and nave from Romanesque time with late Gothic, but rebuilt additions: a tower to the west and a porch to the south. The Romanesque building is built in granite ashlars mixed with few limestone ashlars upon a bevel plinth. Both doors are kept, the straight-edged south door with a tympanum with procession-cross between round arches is open, theround-arched north door with a plump tympanum is bricked-up. Original round-arched windows are kept, one in the apse, two on the north side of the choir and two on the north side of the nave. In the walls are several picture ashlars, on the south side a primitive image of Sct. Michael with devil, in the east corners of the choir lions with protruding heads and upon the apse a primitive animal figure. At the top in the south wall of the nave is an ashlar with a round hollow, and another has a circular stone mason -field. The apse has inside kept its original halfcupolar wall, and the round choir-arch with kragbånd is unchanged. In the late Gothic period ab. 1475 was built a star vault in the choir, in the nave four bays cross vaults, and at the same time was added a tower in monk bricks to the west. Its bottom room, which now forms a front hall, has a cross vault, and the broad tower arch is round. The porch is late Gothic in monk bricks, but very changed like the tower, which probably was rebuilt in the 1700s by Niels Linde of Tirsbæk, 1876 and finally 1939, when it was equipped with a high octagonal lantern spire.













 


In the vault of the apse was found a Romanesque frescoe from ab. 1200, the picture of Christ and Petrus and Paulus, which was heavily restored in 1901. Other frescoes, all from the first half of the 1500s: an image of nådestolen ( the lid of gold for the ark), a flowering tree, an inauguration cross, the fall of man and a hunting scene.

 
 












   
 

The communion table is covered by  panelwork in Renaissance with double portal fields. The altarpiece is a simple Renaissance work with a painted year 1606. Late Gothic ore candelabres with soft shaft rings and upon lion's feet. A crucifix from the late 1800s. A Romanesque granite font where the basin has sculptural, long, undecidable animals, biting each others legs. A dish given 1667 by Friedrich Wildrich Schult, Finstrup, and Gertrud Bille, but with earlier coat of arms: Fasti and Brockenhus with the initials TF and CB. Pulpit in Renaissance with Tuscany corner pillars with the year 1609 and the name of Hans Lassøn Thorup. It was repaired in 1939 like the altarpiece at the expense of frk. Marie Sørensen. Bells: 1) 1592, when Peder Hansen was the parish priest; 2) 1955, cast by John Taylor & Co. Loughborough. Epitaph in acanthus Baroque with a strange inscription for parish priest Morten Andersen Giødesen and a memory tablet for the same, (+ 1708), and wife Maren Jensdatter Juul, stone in a wooden frame. A prism-shaped peasant-gravestone in granite for Terkel Sørensen Schou (+ 1779).
the church dike is large and with many plants.
  
Torupgård was in 1662 owned by Niels Henriksen Krag (+ 1665), whose widow Maren Mund lived here until her death in 1679.

In 1305 bishop Jens (Assersen)  in Århus deeded to Århus Chaper some property in Hedensted,  which he had bought from the brothers Ove and Peder Saksesen.

In the parish is mentioned the farms Toftehessel  (1280 Tofthesel) and Settinggård (1532 Settinggaard).

Listed prehistorics: a large hill at Hedensted and 3 large Terpenshøje, the last from a group of 13, placed upon a gravel-edge, which has now been partly removed.
Demolished or destroyed:  51 hills, which mainly were in a belt north-south mid through the parish.

Several Bronze Age sacrifical finds come from the parish:  from Årup Mose a twisted gold necklace, 3 gold threads, 2 bronze necklaces and 3 heavy spiral bracelets;  from Tagkær Mose a twisted bronze necklace. From Torup comes a metal find, mainly pieces of rings.



Source: Trap Danmark, Vejle amt, 1964.  

photo Hedensted, 2008: grethe bachmann


   

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