Stilt tower

Stilt tower open on three sides in Voer Kirke, North Djursland , DK

The stilts tower , Danish "Styltetårn" is a special form of medieval church towers , the heaped on the peninsula Djursland and neighboring areas in the east of the large Danish peninsula of Jutland was built.

With this design, only the top tower floor with the bell chamber has four walls. Below that, the tower built on the west wall of the nave consists of a high, open arch, at least to the west. The sides are also rarely open in this way, so that the tower shaft consists of three open arches.

After the Gothic period, only a few stilt towers were erected, if one ignores constructions of the 20th century, in which the tower consists only of high pillars and the bell chamber.

A few towers of a similar shape have been erected far outside Denmark. In the Dutch province of Zealand , where there is a small group, people speak prosaically of “torens met open voorhal” - towers with an open porch .

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  One-sided open stilt tower of Torrild Kirke, Odder , Midtjylland , DK

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  Similar tower shape at Sint Petrus en Paulus in Ovezande, Zuid-Beveland , Zeeland , NL

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  Monumental stilt tower of the Notre-Dame collegiate church in Villefranche-de-Rouergue , France

Web links

• Dansk Kirke- og Bygningsarkitektur → Gotisk arkitektur: 1250 - 1550 → Tårne og spir → Styltetårne

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stenvert et al. a. (Ed.), Monuments in Nederland , Volume Zeeland , introductory chapter Stijl en verscheiningsvorm , p. 20