Monday, August 31, 2009

Tjele church / Tjele kirke and Tjele, Sønderlyng herred, Viborg amt.


Tjele Church, ab. 17 km northeast of Viborg
Tjele sogn, Sønderlyng herred, Viborg amt.

Tjele Church is placed close to Tjele Manor. From the original church stands only the nave, the western part of the longhouse, built in granite ashlars . Upon the west door is a carved male head. The thorough rebuilding and extension of the church happened most likely in 1573, when Erik Skram achieved royal allowance to re-use materials from St. Hans klosterkirke in Viborg. In the extension to the east is a crumbled male head in one of the re-used ashlars. The slender tower and the porch were built in the same period. The inside marks the connection to Tjele Manor. Upon the choir arch are 16 frescoe coat of arms for Erik Skram and his wife, and upon the north wall of the choir is a fine Renaissance head stone for Jørgen Skram and Hilleborg Daa.



The communion table is oak wood; inside was in 1939 found a reliquary ,where the old church accounts were kept. The altar piece is rather new, but the earlier altar piece is now in Nr. Vinge Church. The Romanesque granite font is the oldest artefact in the church - it comes from the demolished Foulum Church. The sounding board above the font with an inscription was given in 1578 by Jørgen Skram who also gave the altar candelabres. The pulpit, probably from 1578, has round-arched fields with the paternal and maternal coat of arms of Jørgen Skram and Hilleborg Daa. the same coat of arms are painted upon the upper pew gables. A church bell from 1495 is now at the National Museum. At the church yard dike by the manor are rests of an old driving gate and a small gate. At the driving-gate are two Romanesque head stones.

Tjele

Tjele, 17 km northeast of Viborg
Tjele sogn, Sønderlyng herred, Viborg amt.

Tjele was during queen Margrete I's ruling period a village main farm owned by the brothers Basse. Jep Eskildsen's son Eskild Jepsen (Basse of Tjele) is mentioned in 1418, when he negotiated with St. Marie Kloster in Viborg about some estate in Tjele; he was married to Else Svendsdatter Udsen, who after his death married Mogens Jensen Løvenbalk. With him the family Løvenbalk -who deduces their origin from a non-marital child of Christoffer II - came to Tjele. He was present in Viborg at the issue of Christoffer of Bayerns coronation charter, but was probably killed in the peasant revolt in 1441 - he was dead in 1450 when fru Else gave estate to Mariager Kloster and when her son of first marriage, Christiern Eskildsen confirmed the deed of gift. He became the last male in the family Basse since he died childless as a Johanitter monk (Knights hospitaller/Maltesian) in Viborg after 1478. Tjele was inherited by hr. Christiern's half brother Laurids Mogensen Løvenbalk who died in 1500, but whose three children Jørgen, Mogens and Maren probably all inherited a part of Tjele.



A bad fate often ruled at Tjele. It was burnt down by the peasants in the Skipper Clement's Feud but the thick walls defied the fire and the manor was restored. Jørgen Lauridsen is mentioned for the last time in 1531 and hr. Mogens Lauridsen Løvenbalk, (the Scotswoman Genete Cragengelt's husband) was dead in 1536, when Maren Lauridsdatter Løvenbalk and her husband Erik Skram (Fasti) of Hastrup (Nørvang herred ) took over Tjele. The Danish State Council would not acknowledge Genete Jacobsdatter Cragengelt's marriage to Mogens Lauridsen Løvenbalk, and she was driven out from Tjele as a frille (mistress) together with her two sons. Later one of her sons Knud Mogensen fought for her honour and had his parents' marriage acknowledged at the University of Copenhagen. But he never became the owner of his paternal home, since the claim was obsolete. And it was of no help for Genete Cragengelt either. She died a year before the acknowledgement - but her son Knud Mogensen achieved the rights to use his coat of arms (Løvenbalk) ,which he brought to his grave as the last male of the family. (see ab. Løvenbalk in blog: Medieval Danish Families)



Tjele is one of Denmark's national treasures. The main building is one of the oldest manors in the country. Marie Grubbe, the landlord's daughter from Tjele immortalized the old manor. Ludvig Holberg, Steen Steensen Blicher, H.C. Andersen and I.P.Jacobsen have all told the story about her life. Her sad fate was in reality an image of the degeneracy of the Danish nobility in the end of the 1600s. Marie's sister Anna inherited Tjele ater her father's death, but her fate wasn't much better than Marie's. She was married to the infamous witch hunter Jørgen Arenfelt of Rugård. He soon shut up his wife and surrounded himself with foreign mistresses. In 1698 Arenfelt had to give up Tjele to the not less dissipated ritmester (captain of horse) Gert Didrik von Levetzau who is still riding around in Tjele's dunghill with his rejected bride.

Tjele was open to the public until 1996, but today there is only public access to the exclusive restaurant "Marie Grubbe".

Names in the Middle Ages and 1600s:
Tjele (*1392 Tyell, 1418 Thælæ, 1428 Thyæle); Foulum (* 1440 Foulum, 1447 Føvlom); Formyre (1664 Formyre); Rise (* 1392 Thyelriies, 1664 Riise); Tjele Møllegård (1683 Thielle-, Tiel-, Tille Mølle); Flarupgård (*1463 Florup(p)); Vester Tjele (1664 Wester Thielle).

Northwest of Foulum in a moor at Tjele Aa (river), almost at the farm Sønderup in Vammen parish, is a flattened motte, named Gotrik's Høj (hill). There are no building traces in the earth, but northwest of the motte are some oak poles from a bridge leading to the higher land in Vammen sogn (parish) where the borganlæg (castle plan) originally must have been.
Tjele and area is the scenery in Steen Steensen Blicher's novel "En landsbydegns dagbog " (The Diary of a Parish Clerk).

Listed prehistorics: 3 long dolmens, best preserved is the 40 m long Gøngeovn in Sønderhede plantage, it has two chambers, one with a cover stone; the two others, at Flarupgård, are very disturbed. Furthermore a hill with a stone chamber at Tjele Hedegård and 7 hills, of which several are rather large: Bavnehøj south of Foulum, two hills in Gammelbylund and the very broad, flat Risehøj, the last in a group of 4.
Demolished or destroyed: 37 hills.

Source: Danske slotte og herregårde, Midtjylland, bd. 13; Trap Danmark Viborg amt;
Politikens bog om Danmarks slotte og herregårde; Per Eilstrup, Kay Nielsen og Holger Rasmussen: Vore gamle herregårde. Jytte Ortmann: Slotte og herregårde i Danmark


photo Tjele kirke & Tjele 2002: grethe bachmann

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