Randrup church ruins
The Randrup church ruins are the remains of a medieval chapel or church. She stood on the top of a hill, near the border between North and Central Jutland , on Randrupvej on the edge of Randrup, in Randers Municipality in Denmark .
description
The ruin is about 15.0 m long and 7.5 m wide. The building consisted of the nave and a narrow chancel offset to the left, with a concealed extension to the right. Excavations showed that the church was built from granite , which was covered with limestone inside . A cemetery, bounded by low earthen walls, surrounded the church in the north-west and south. The wall to the east was removed when the garden of the nearby courtyard was laid out.
The church is very small, so it seems natural to call it a chapel. It may have been the chapel of a holy spring that lies in the north of the church hill. It may also have served as the parish church for Randrup and True to the west. After the great plague of 1350, in which two thirds of the population died, parishes were merged because parishes that were too small could not cover the maintenance of a church and a pastor. During the Middle Ages , Dyrby and Hvidsten, where church ruins are also located, were independent parishes. Probably these churches, like Randrup, were closed around 1400 and attached to the parish of Gassum. From written sources it can be deduced that Randrup was part of the Gassum parish in 1579.
Church ruins are common in Denmark. In the four districts of Onsild, Gjerlev, Nerhald and Stevring south of the Mariagerfjord , 36 have survived. It was possible to locate 24 of them. In comparison there are 42 parish churches in this area today.
The checkerboard piece
A checkered stone ashlar was found in the wall of Randrupgård right next to the ruin. It probably came from the church and can now be seen in the Randers Museum.
Checkerboard stones are a rare architectural ornament on the outer walls of medieval late Romanesque and early Gothic field stone churches . They were preferably installed in the entrance area or on the corners of the wall of the apse , choir , nave and tower . The Danish and German churches with chessboard stones date from the same period and in both areas it must be assumed that the stones were associated with church building. It is difficult to imagine that there is no correlation between the occurrence of the same phenomenon in either area. Danish checkerboard pieces were found mainly in churches in North Jutland, in an area that stretches from Aarhus to Randers and Viborg to Thy . In the Mariager Area there are chessboard pieces in the churches of Falslev, Svenstrup and Spentrup. The meaning of the chessboard pieces is not clear. There are different ideas regarding their origin: a hobby of a stone carver, repairing damaged stones, a calculating device, mysterious symbolic combinations of numbers or messages, ultimately to symbolize the opposites black and white, good and bad or life and death.
Legends
The stones are popularly known as "the devil's chessboard". It is also considered a man's gamble on death if someone should die. Legend has it that the devil often disrupted the construction of churches by demolishing at night what had been built during the day. The builder is said to have made a chess board for the devil. His passion for the game dominated him and the construction could be completed without interruption.
literature
- Karen Marie Christensen: Archaeological sites and Monuments in the Mariager Area . 1994, ISBN 87-90099-08-7 .
Web links
Coordinates: 56 ° 35 ′ 8 " N , 9 ° 57 ′ 47.7" E