Fjelsø kirke / Fjelsø church Himmerland

Fjelsø kirke, Rinds herred, Viborg amt
ab. 20 km north of Viborg 


The Romanesque Fjelsø church is placed high in the northern part of Fjelsø village. The nave and the choir were built in carved ashlars in the 1100s, the whitewashed tower in the 1400s and the porch in 1847.  The north door is bricked up  In the brick-up section is a relief of a Romanesque male head, which turns upside down. In the southern wall of the choir is also a relief of a male head turning upside down. On purpose ? Superstition ? Or a coincidence!

male head upside down

Digitalis by church dike

The altar was originally a large carved granite block. The block has been en-heightened and covered with a wooden panel. The paintings in front of the altar was made in the beginning of the 1700s. Parts of the altar date from the 1500s, but the main part is from the 1700s where it was given to the church as a gift from Christen Sørensen.

Two biblical altar paintings were made in 1895 by the artist Luplau Jansen.

male head upside down

A chalice and a dish for the Holy Communion  were given to the church in the 1600s by the priest Jens Nielsen Brasen, which name is also engraved in the candlesticks with the year 1666. On the foot of the candlesticks is also the name Jens Poulsen. It is said that he gave them to the church as a penance for some damage which happened in a negligent burning of  heaths in Vesterbølle. The present altar jar and wafer box were given by parson Hans Nielsen Højgaard in the years 1916-43.

The granite font is probably as old as the church itself. The baptismal dish is rather new but an earlier dish from the 1700s hangs upon the wall in the choir. The oldest part of the pulpit origins from the 1500s with picture--fields in two storeys. The decorations were made in 1736.
The priest tablet is new and was made in 1944 with names of the priests since the Reformation. The priests before the Reformation are not known.

The ship model "Nordstjernen" hangs in the nave. It is lent out from Gedsted church. The altar gobelin is from November 1981 and was designed by the teacher-couple Ruth and Holger Møllebjerg, Hvalpsund. It was embroidered by local people

The church bell (with no inscription )  is from the late 1200s.

source. Flemming Kloster (Erik Horskjær (red.) De danske kirker Gads forlag 1968. 




photo and text August 2015: grethe bachmann