Åby Church ( Danish: Åby Kirke) is a church located in Åby Parish in

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

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. The church is situated in the neighbourhood Åbyhøj, west of Midtbyen. The church is today a parish church in the

Church of Denmark The Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark or National Church ( , or unofficially ; ), sometimes called the Church of Denmark, is the established, state-supported church in Denmark. The supreme secular authority of the church is composed of ...

, serving a parish population of 10.925 (2015). The Åby Church pastorate is shared with the Åbyhøj Church to the north.

History

The church is situated in the western neighbourhood Åby which was formerly a village. The original church constructed of

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

was built c. 1200 and in the Late Middle Ages it was lengthened towards the west. Two imposts in the chancel arch which were transferred to the new building, the one in the south is, owing to its cylindrical shape, assumed to be an imitation in stone of a decorated wooden post.

Architecture

The present building was constructed in 1872–73 when it was decided it wasn't economical to renovate the former medieval church. The church was designed by Vilhelm Theodor Walther, who worked as the royal building inspector for

Jutland Jutland (; , ''Jyske Halvø'' or ''Cimbriske Halvø''; , ''Kimbrische Halbinsel'' or ''Jütische Halbinsel'') is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). It ...

at the time, in

romanesque style Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe that was predominant in the 11th and 12th centuries. The style eventually developed into the Gothic style with the shape of the arches providing a simple distinction: the Ro ...

imitation inspired by

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

elements. The walls are bands of yellow and red bricks and the building resembles a traditional

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and tower. In 1929 the tower spire was made taller and clad in copper. In the north wall by the tower a walled off entrance with a staircase presents a curiosity. In older churches there was typically a north and south entrance - men and women entrances - and in most churches the north entrance have later been walled off. The original medieval church also had two entrances and it is thought the architect Vilhelm Theodor Walther chose to emulate this by deliberately putting in a walled off entrance.

Interior

While nothing in the interior remains from the original church a couple of items of church furniture were transferred from the demolished church and are still in use. These are the altar-piece from 1598 with a carved crucificial group in front of the middle panel and

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

paintings on the side panels and the Romanesque

baptismal font A baptismal font is an Church architecture, ecclesiastical architectural element, which serves as a receptacle for baptismal water used for baptism, as a part of Christian initiation for both rites of Infant baptism, infant and Believer's bapti ...

of granite. A crucifix from the latter half of the 11th century has been in the

National Museum A national museum can be a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In the United States, most nati ...

since 1870. It is probably the earliest of the Jutland crucifixes which belong with the »golden altars« and was presumably made in the same workshop as the Lisbjerg altar. Church-of-Aaby-1.JPG, Church-of-Aaby-2.JPG, Gl. Aaby Kirke 1.jpg, Gl. Aaby Kirke 2.jpg, Gl. Aaby Kirke 3.jpg,

References

External links

Website of Åby ChurchWebsite of Åby PastorateChurch of Denmark's page for Åby Parish
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aby Church Lutheran churches in Aarhus Lutheran churches converted from Roman Catholicism Churches in the Diocese of Aarhus

History

Architecture

Interior

See also

References

External links