Lisbjerg is a village and suburb 7 km north of the city center of

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. Lisbjerg has a population of 1,063 (1 January 2022). Lisbjerg is situated on the northern slopes of the broad and flat valley of Egådalen, marking the northern limits of Aarhus. The village is cut through by the expressway of Randersvej, connecting the cities of Aarhus and

Randers Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 62,802 (as of 1 January 2022).Lisbjerg Skov and immediately north are the large camping grounds of Aarhus Camping and a large authentic

Japanese garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desig ...

. ''Lisbjerg Forbrændingen'' is an important incineration plant and hazardous waste treatment facility and works as a landmark for this area. Lisbjerg is an old settlement and boasts a 12th-century church, one of the oldest in Denmark, but there are also new residential quarters here and a large new residential area is under construction west of the old village center. The new quarter, known as ''Lisbjerg Bakke'' (Lisbjerg Hill), is built to accommodate 20-25,000 new residents when it is finished. Several houses, apartments and a school have already been built as of 2015 and in 2017,

Aarhus light rail The Aarhus Letbane (Aarhus light rail) is a light rail system in the city of Aarhus, Denmark. It is operated by the company Midttrafik. The first line opened in December 2017, but the system is under continuous development and expansion. Service ...

is intended to have its end station here. The old village church originally housed a Romanesque golden altar. The altar was removed from the church in 1867 and is now on display at the

National Museum of Denmark The National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet) in Copenhagen is Denmark's largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. The museum's main building is located a short distance from Strøget ...

.Jeppesen, Jens, and Hans Jørgen Madsen. "Trækirke og stormandshal i Lisbjerg." Kuml 1995-96: 149-171. Print. Since 1989,

Moesgaard Museum Moesgaard Museum (MOMU) is a Danish regional museum dedicated to archaeology and ethnography. It is located in Beder, a suburb of Aarhus, Denmark. MOMU cooperates with the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Medieval and Renaissance Archaeolo ...

has been carrying out archaeological excavations around Lisbjerg church. They have found traces of an important late

Viking Age The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...

farmstead in this area, possibly indicating continuity between the centers of importance before and after the introduction of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

in Denmark.Jeppesen, Jens. "Magnate Farms and Lordship from the Viking Age to the Medieval Period in Eastern Jutland: The Excavations at Lisbjerg and Haldum Churches." Settlement and Lordship in Viking and Early Medieval Scandinavia. Ed. Bjørn Poulsen and Søren Michael Sindbæk. Turnhout: Brepols, 2011. 137-145. Print. Egådalen was once a

brackish water Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estua ...

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

and the slopes of the valley have been populated since the earliest

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...

History

Church and Viking Age farmstead

Farmstead

The farm excavated at Lisbjerg shows traces of three building phases, indicating that it existed for a significant time period. The phases were dated based on the style of some long houses found in the farmstead. Similar houses have been found at Gammel Hviding and Vilslev as well as the closing phase of

Vorbasse Vorbasse with a population of 1,300 (1 January 2022)Jeppesen, Jens, and Hans Jørgen Madsen. "Stormandsgård og kirke i Lisbjerg." Kuml 1988-89: 289-310. Print. A semi-spherical ceramic vessel type common in all phases of the farm was previously thought to have fallen out of use around 1000, but the long houses found at Lisbjerg are clearly a later development than

Trelleborg Trelleborg () is a town in Skåne County, Sweden, with 43,359 inhabitants as of December 31, 2015. It is the southernmost town in Sweden located some west from the southernmost point of Sweden and the Scandinavian peninsula. It is one of the ...

-type houses of the late 10th century. The farmstead thus dates from the 11th century, which indicates that semi-spherical vessels remained in use after the year 1000 in

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

. In all three phases, the farm was at least partially surrounded by a fence. Relatively light in the earliest phase, by the latest it had developed into a substantial palisade surrounding a roughly rectangular patch of land of about 170 by 110 meters. In addition to fences surrounding the farm area, a smaller one was found near the center of the farmstead. Owing to similarities with the palisade from the third phase, it is placed in the same time period. This fence would have partially surrounded the main farmhouse, traces of which have been found under the present stone church. The area inside this fence might be the "sheltered yard", a particular part of a farmstead which has special status in

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

law.Jeppesen, Jens. "Stormandsgården ved Lisbjerg kirke." Kuml 2004: 161-180. Print. Two waste pits found from the farmstead area contained iron slag, while

West Slav The West Slavs are Slavic peoples who speak the West Slavic languages. They separated from the common Slavic group around the 7th century, and established independent polities in Central Europe by the 8th to 9th centuries. The West Slavic lang ...

pottery highly popular in the Viking Age was found from a third. Yet another pit contained waste from metal crafts as well as glass of

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

and

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

origin.

Connection between farmstead and church

Under Lisbjerg stone church, remains of an earlier wooden church have been found in addition to the main farmhouse. The wooden church must have existed after the farmhouse, but before the 12th century stone church, which places it around the year 1100. The wooden church might have been located inside the farmstead after the removal of the main house. However, it is more likely that the wooden church was built only after the farmstead was demolished, as its orientation is different from the orientation of the fence surrounding the farmstead. In either case, their proximity in time implies a connection between the church and the farmstead. It is likely that the farm owner was involved in building the church.

Influence and importance

The particular importance of the Lisbjerg farm is emphasized by its large area and the strength of the surrounding palisade. Its isolated location on the east side of the important old road to Aarhus is also suitable for property belonging to a magnate or nobleman. Artifacts implying a contemporary village west of the road have been found. Moesgaard Museum has also found traces of a moat running across the road from Lisbjerg to Aarhus, which would have forced travelers to cross the stream of

Egå Egå is a both a suburban district and a stream in the Municipality of Aarhus in Denmark. Name Egå means 'Oak-stream' in English. The Egå stream The Egå stream runs north of the city of Aarhus, in the bottom of the flat valley of Egå ...

just south of the village. The moat may have been used as a traffic control measure. It has not been dated, but a connection between the moat and the magnate farm at Lisbjerg is possible. The farm may have had an important administrative function because the settlement at Lisbjerg has given its name to Lisbjerg

herred A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, C ...

, a division which already existed by the end of the 11th century. As the Lisbjerg settlement is located in the south-western part of the herred and far from its geographical center, it must have been all the more important in order to assume a central administrative role. If the farm owner at Lisbjerg was indeed powerful enough to hold authority over the whole herred, he would have been an obvious candidate for building a church upon the introduction of Christianity. In general, placing the church on the site of an important farm can be associated with the continuity of power in the area. It is also possible that continuity of tradition or cult practices played a role, as pagan rituals may have been carried out at main houses of important farms during the Viking Age. The farmstead was perhaps even a royal estate, given its location close to Aarhus, an important center of royal power. Upon the founding of the

Diocese of Aarhus In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

around 1060, the farm may have been donated to the church, perhaps becoming the bishop’s residence. This is supported by a written source from 1604 claiming that "Aarhus was moved in 1102 from Lisbjerg to the place where it now lies". If the statement is interpreted as referring to the relocation of the bishop’s residence to Aarhus, it would be reasonable to expect that the farmstead at Lisbjerg had become the bishop’s estate by 1102.

Bronze Age hoard

Lisbjerg area has also produced archaeological finds from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

. In August 1933, a Late Bronze Age hoard was found in a gravel pit east of Nymølle farm near Lisbjerg. It includes three hanging vessels, five

fibula The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is ...

s, a belt ornament, an awl, two

casting Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...

jets and a piece of casting waste. The find has been dated to 1000-900 BC. It is significant as one of few Late Bronze Age hoards in the Aarhus area. Furthermore, the hoard contains equipment from at least three different women, which is very rare in all of Denmark.Frost, Lise. "Et depotfund fra yngre bronzealder." Kuml 2010: 9-47. Print.

Gallery

Lisbjerg Forbrændingen.jpg, The incineration plant of ''Lisbjerg Forbrændingen'' is a landmark of the area. File:Randersvej (nord for Lisbjerg).jpg, The main road of ''

Randers Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 62,802 (as of 1 January 2022).History of Lisbjerg church (by the National Museum of Denmark)
{{Cities and towns in Aarhus Municipality Towns and settlements in Aarhus Municipality Cities and towns in Aarhus Municipality