Nordby is a village on the island of

Samsø Samsø (Anglicized: "Samso" or "Samsoe") is a Denmark, Danish island in the Kattegat off the Jutland Peninsula. Samsø is located in Samsø municipality. The community has 3,724 inhabitants (2017) (January 2010:4,010) called ''Samsings'' and is ...

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 ...

. It is located in

Samsø Municipality Samsø Municipality () is a municipality ( Danish: '' kommune'') in Region of Central Denmark. Samsø municipality covers an area of 115 km2 in the Kattegat sea, between the Danish mainland of Jutland and Zealand and comprises the island of ...

Nordby Bell Tower

Nordby Church was built in the 1200s, but not in or near Nordby. Instead it was built centrally between the four villages of Samsø's north island: Nordby, Mårup, Søby and Glistrup. Søby and Glistrup no longer exist. The church's distance from Nordby meant that the villagers were unable to hear the church bell, so a bell tower was built in the 1600s in the center of Nordby, on a small plaza known locally as ''Galgepladsen''. This plaza is also where the village's

pillory The pillory is a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, used during the medieval and renaissance periods for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse. ...

was located until 1820. The current version of the village's bell tower was built in 1857. Other than church events, the bell tower also rang to warn against fires or when an animal was butchered and its meat sold on the plaza. Until 2011 the

gravedigger A gravedigger is a cemetery worker who is responsible for digging a grave prior to a funeral service. Gravediggers have historically often been members of the church, though in modern secular cemeteries, they may be temporary or full-time staf ...

of Nordby Church rang the bell. Today an organisation of volunteers, known as ''Ringelauget'', ring the bell.Visitsamsoe.dk
"Nordbys berømte klokketårn" Retrieved 11 August 2020

References

Samsø Samsø Municipality Cities and towns in the Central Denmark Region Villages in Denmark {{CentralDK-stub