Braaby Church ( Danish: ''Bråby Kirke'') is a Romanesque Danish church located in the Diocese of Roskilde, Faxe Municipality in Region Sjælland on the island of Zealand. There have been substantial Gothic additions to the original 12th-century building.

History and architecture

The precise date of the church's construction is not known but it was first documented around 1370 when it consisted of the current Romanesque nave and a smaller chancel, both built of limestone blocks."Gisselfeld and Bråby church/ Bråby kirke, Ringsted herred,Sorø amt, Zealand"
Church and Manor in Denmark. Retrieved 23 April 2013. In about 1500, the tower, porch and north chapel were added with decorations consisting of belts of brick and limestone. Today's chancel was constructed in c. 1570. After

Steward of the Realm Steward of the Realm (Danish: Rigshofmester) was an office at the Royal Danish Court. With the coronation of Eric VII of Denmark it became an important office, taking over the role of the Seneschal The word ''seneschal'' () can have several differ ...

Peder Oxe had built nearby Gisselfeld Manor in 1556, he received Braaby Church as a gift from King Christian III. The church remained in the ownership of Gisselfeld until 1967."Bråby kirke"
, ''Nordens Kirker''. Received 23 April 2013.

Interior

In 1880, a vault was constructed in place of the wooden ceiling. The tomb headpiece in the nave adjacent to the north chapel is from 1695. It is decorated with a skull flanked by volutes. The

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

bears 14 ancestral arms with an inscription stating: "The nobleman Adam Levith Knuth of Gisselfeld and Assendrup who was born 1 March 1648 in Meklenburg and died 13 January 1699 has completed this tomb and memorial for his soul's eternal rest and his corporal remains." It is headed by a large carving bearing the family arms surrounded by symbols of war. Below the memorial windows, there is a carved depiction of a young woman with wavy hair sitting in a wooded landscape. She is caressing a dog with her left hand while she hushes with the fingers of her right hand. The inscription from Proverbs 11, verse 12, reads "But a man of understanding remains silent." Below the memorial, there is a crypt with the coffins of Knuth, Sophia Ulfeldt of Orebygård (died 1698) and her daughter Countess Hilleborg Holck (died 1724) who was Knuth's longstanding fiancée. A batch of letters was found in her coffin which might explain why they never married but out of respect for the deceased they have not been read. The

rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or ...

(1695) bears Knuth's arms with a black kettle hook. The painting on the

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting o ...

is by

Constantin Hansen Carl Christian Constantin Hansen (Constantin Hansen) (3 November 1804 – 29 March 1880) was one of the painters associated with the Golden Age of Danish Painting. He was deeply interested in literature and mythology, and inspired by art hi ...

(1833). The

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

is from 1862. On the north wall of the chancel there is an epitaph to Peder Oxe who died in 1575. It was completed before his death and although he was buried in

Church of Our Lady Church of Our Lady may refer to: Belgium * Cathedral of Our Lady (Antwerp) * Church of Our Lady, Bruges *Church of Our Lady (Kortrijk) * Church of Our Lady of Laeken, site of the royal crypt, Brussels *Church of Our Lady, Melsele Canada * Church ...

in Copenhagen, the date of his death has been added. The epitaph states that Braaby Church has been moved to Gisselfeld. This never happened but he was so convinced that his plans would be carried out and the church would be moved stone by stone that he included it in his epitaph.

Gotland Gotland (, ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a province, county, municipality, and diocese. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the ...

limestone has been used to make the

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

from the later part of the 12th century. It is akin to the font seen in

Bornholm Bornholm () is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea, to the east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of Poland. Strategically located, Bornholm has been fought over for centuries. It has usually been ruled by ...

, though the decorations are different; these are inferred to be by an artist of Zealand. The bowl of the font has decorations made in relief. They depict the Three Kings and

Saint Anne According to Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come o ...

holding the baby Jesus. Also seen in the relief are other scenes of an angel restraining a hunter, a deer, a cross turned towards the hunter, satan in the form of an ape, and horses saddled but without the riders, the central horse carrying a falcon. The plinth also has relief decorations of a bishop, two snakes being nursed by a woman, a snake, and also of a book with a cross and

griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late Latin, Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail ...

Burials

Adam Levin Knuth Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as ...

(1648-1699), statesman and landowner (inside the church) * Carl Adolph Kraft (1876-1864), military officer and sportsman * Frederik Christian Kaas (1727-1804), naval officer and landowner * Frants Lassen (1922-1997), captain, chamberlain and Resistance Fighter * Otto Frederik Christian Rasmussen (1814-1888), writer, historian and estate manager

References

External links

Braaby parish website
{{coord, 55, 17, 51, N, 11, 56, 41, E, display=title Churches in Faxe Municipality 14th-century churches in Denmark Romanesque architecture in Denmark Lutheran churches converted from Roman Catholicism Churches in the Diocese of Roskilde