Thursday, July 30, 2009

Sønderholm church / Sønderholm kirke, Hornum herred, Aalborg amt.


Sønderholm Church, 8 km east of Nibe
Sønderholm sogn, Hornum herred, Aalborg amt.

Saint's grave from a Communion table




The nave, choir and apse of Sønderholm Church is Romanesque, built in granite ashlars . A Romanesque window is preserved in each side of the nave. The north door is preserved and on the south door's place is an ashlar with a hollow, probably a saint's grave from an ealier Communion table. The choir arch with profiled kragbånd (oblong relief stones) is preserved. The choir and nave have large octagonal Gothic vaults and a similar vault is built in the apse.The tower in granite ashlars and yellow monk bricks is an addition from the Gothic period. On the west side has it two large supporting pillars of which one is a staircase-house. High upon the gable is the year 1769. The tower room was in the 1700s vaulted and at the same time it became a grave chapel. Surrounding the broad tower arch was in 1735 built a portal with a cast iron grating.

The porch is probably from the same period as the tower and in similar materials , the chapel in the north side of the choir was probably built in 1685, but might be earlier, it is built in monk bricks and a few ashlars , the inside is vaulted. another lesser addition in small bricks is probably from the 1700s and was at that time porch for the master and mistress at Restrup Manor. (it is now a a tool shed). The Romanesque parts of the church are in blank ashlar-walls with a lead roof, the additions are white-washed and with tiled roof. The church was restored in 1881-83 and in a lesser restoration 1943-45.

The choir has rich frescoes from the Renaissance period, in the vault are mainly pictures from the old Testament and a row of 32 coat of arms, representing Gabriel Gyldenstierne and his wife Kirsten Friis' ancestors, everything paid in 1556 by Kirsten Friis. The frescoes were restored in 1888 and in 1940. The triptychon altar piece is Lutheranian from the end of the 1500s with paintings from the 1700s. It was repaired in 1945. The Romanesque granite font has a smooth basin . The pulpit is from ab. 1550 with biblical reliefs and the coat of arms of Gabriel Gyldenstierne and Kirsten Friis , it was repaired in 1945. The pews are from 1881.




Upon the iron bound entrance door is an interesting Romanesque bronze plate with animal figures from the Viking Period. (The lock might come from a viking house, or it might be from the first wooden church in Sønderholm). One church bell is cast in 1600 for Hornum Church by Reinholdt Benninck in Lübeck , the other is recast by Baltzer Melchior in 1665. In front of the entrance to the chapel is a wooden portal with the coat of arms for the Lindenov-family. In the chapel are four coffins with the bodies of admiral Christoffer Lindenov, + 1679; Kommerceråd Christian Christoffersen Lindenov, + 1692 ; Kaptajn Oluf Thott, + 1752, and his wife Anna Lindenov, + 1760. Upon the walls in the chapel is an epitaph for admiral Christoffer Lindenov and a wooden table with an inscription about the inauguration of the chapel, an epitaph for Hannibal Gyldenstierne and a strange painting of the genealogical tree of the Thott-family , probably placed there on the occassion of Oluf Thott's funeral.

In the tower room are two large marble sarcophagi with the bodies of generalløjtnant Chr. Fr. Levetzau, +1756 and his first wife Christence Lindenov Rantzau, +1734. There are three impressive gravestone with portrait figures of 1) Gabriel Gyldenstierne, + 1555, and wife Kirsten Friis, + 1565, the stone with a broad bronzeplate is now placed in the wall of the choir. 2) Hannibal Gyldenstierne, +1608, and wife Helvig Kaas, upon the wall of the nave. 3) Jep Friis of Lyngholm, + 1547, and wife Helvig Høgsdatter, + 1544, the stone was given by the son in law Gabriel Gyldenstierne, it is now in the north wall of the nave. In the church is buried the lady Christence Kruckow who in 1621 was executed for witchcraft. She was the founder of "Den halshuggede Jomfrus Legat". (The grant of the beheaded lady. )


Klitgård, fishing village northwest of Sønderholm

Names in the Middle Ages and 1600s:
Sønderholm * 1292 Synderhollm); Nyrup (* 1440 Nyrup); Tostrup (1477 Thostrvp); St. Restrup (* 1425 Restrup, 1456 Reffstorp); Godrim (1683 Goerum, Godrim).

Store Restrup Manor
Store Restrup is an old main farm, in 1477 it belonged according to a thing-witness "fra Arilds tid" (from ancient times ) to the family Gyldenstierne. As early as 1314 Niels Eriksen Gyldenstierne owned Restrup and in 1426 it belonged to rigsråd Henrik Knudsen Gyldenstierne. After his death in 1456 it was inherited from father to son: rigsråd Knud Henriksen Gyldenstierne, + 1467; rigsråd Henrik Knudsen Gyldenstierne, +1517 , and then to his widow Karen Bille until 1530; Gabriel Gyldenstierne, +1555, and then his widow Kirsten Friiis (of Haraldskær) who owned it until her death in 1565. 1569 Restrup was shared by Gabriel's brother Mogens Gyldenstierne, Knud Gyldenstierne's widow Jytte Podebusk and Christoffer Gyldenstierne's widow Anne Parsberg. In 1608 the part-owner was Mogens Gyldenstierne's son Hannibal Gyldenstierne , + 1608, whose widow Helvig Kaas (Sparre-Kaas) kept his part until her death . Restrup was later in the ownership of various families like Lindenov, Parsberg, Marsvin, Levetzau etc. In the 1900s it was an education center for farmers.

The main building was built in 1723 by Fr. Levetzau. It is a white-washed building in simple Baroque style, with three wings and an open yard to the east. A walled bridge leads across old rests of old moats. In the south wing is the great hall , equipped in 1782, later it became the feast hall of the farmer's high school. In the west wing's southern room are English tapestry with hunting scenes from ab. 1820. In the park are rests from a Baroque garden.

Northeast of Store Restrup, close to the parish border by Frejlev parish was a large water mill, which in 1789 was destroyed by a violent thaw. The site of the house was examined and it showed rests of a half timbered building, a large baking oven and a big all-night burner in red tiles.



Listed prehistorics:On the top af a range of hills northeast of Sønderholm is an impressive long dolmen Troldkirken, about 50 m long, with 46 border stones and a chamber of 6 bearing stones with a very large cover stone. Besides are two lesser long dolmens, two dolmen chambers at Store Restrup's field and two passage graves at Tostrup; only one with a preserved cover stone. Plus two stone cists, 31 hill grave hills and an Iron Age stone cist. Of the hills are 4 rather large, fx Rådhøj at Tostrup, all the large hills are in the southern part of the parish.

Demolished or destroyed: One longhill, two indefinable stone graves and 40 hills; in an over-ploughed Bronze Age hill was found a claybox with lid as a hide for burnt bones. Stone Age's kitchen middens are known from Sovsbakke and from the edge of the meadow north of the town. Early Roman period's graves are found at St. Restrup, Tostrup and south of Sønderholm Station, where was also noted an Iron Age-settlement.

Source: Trap Danmark , Aalborg amt, 1961



Troldkirke is one of Denmark's finest long barrows, beautifully situated by Limfjorden, about 13 km west of Aalborg. The 50 meter long barrow has a hexagonal chamber, covered by one big stone. There are 46 surrounding stones of which the gable stones are over 2 meters tall. Long barrows are from Stone Age (ab. 3500-2800 BC). The North European Megalith culture is rather independent compared to other megaliths.


photo Sønderholm kirke/KLitgård/Troldkirke 2007: grethe bachmann

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