Ejsing Church
Ejsing Church is a Romanesque ashlar church with unusually many and large late Gothic additions. The church also represents a very fine example of the influence of local lords on the church throughout history.
Romanesque ashlar
The original Romanesque nave has a flat beamed nave, as is common in all West Jutland churches, but the three-aisled side nave has cross-vaulted nave. The church has 330 fixed seats, but seating for 500 people can be created. Ejsing Church differs from the other village churches in the region in its size, complicated structure and rich furnishings. It was originally built as a simple Romanesque ashlar church with a nave and choir. The relatively small ashlars are part of the later extensive additions and reconstructions that were carried out in several stages in the late Gothic period. The unusual wealth is linked to the manor Landting, which was located on a castle site in the large salt meadow area further south.
Construction booms and recessions
Here Ejsing Church is seen from the north side with the sacristy, the three connected side chapels and the closed chapel. The gables each have their own decoration. The history of church construction follows a common pattern throughout the country, but the scale and standard vary. After periods of prosperity and a great building boom in the 12th and 13th centuries, the 14th century brought general recessions and crises, and the plague, the Black Death, which plagued all of Europe, had a devastating impact on the population and in some places entire parishes were almost abandoned. During the 15th century, there was a period of prosperity and in the latter part of the century and into the 16th century, the next great church building boom came. The style had changed from the Romanesque monumental round-arch style to the Gothic soaring pointed-arch style. The common feature in Danish village churches was that the Romanesque churches were added a tower at the west gable and a porch, most often at the south door, the men's door. The small, high-set Romanesque windows were enlarged, at least on the south side, and several churches also had a side chapel added. The furnishings were also replaced or expanded, and new frescoes were added and old ones were painted over.
The legacy of the wealthy
The extent of the late Gothic expansions and reconstructions varied greatly in the churches of West Jutland. The finances behind the expansions lay in the size of the parish's church tithe and, to a decisive extent, in the hands of local estates/lords and the size of their estates. There was prestige in showing off one's splendor and wealth and in making a name for oneself, and this was best done in the church. Ejsing Church is an excellent example of this. Poor parishes like Heldum could neither afford a tower nor an armory, and Fousing had to make do with a modest tower. The owners of the Landting, on the other hand, have truly surpassed all others - even in the times after the late Gothic period. The history of the Landting dates back to the 14th century, when there was a larger medieval castle, which was inhabited by wealthy noble families. The castle bank still exists. In the 17th century, the medieval castle was replaced by a three-story Renaissance building. The owners of the Landting through the ages have influenced the church room; above is an epitaph for the owner from the 1770s with the text: "In 1766, the church owner Niels Pedersen Lillelund and his wife Mari-Anna Hansdaatter Bernsdorph had this stone painted and decorated." All old buildings disappeared with the "slaughter of the estates" around 1800.
The building today
The Romanesque church has almost disappeared in the multitude of late Gothic gables and side buildings. A large sacristy was added to the choir to the north and the nave was expanded to the north with a side nave, which externally appears as three gabled buildings and finally an additional chapel was added to the north side. Externally, the entire south wall appears as 5 gabled, connected buildings. The three side chapels were equipped with side altars, where masses for souls were held. After the Reformation, they were incorporated as a side nave for the congregation. A porch was added by the south door and a 22-meter-high, slender tower.
Parliament chapel and saint's grave
The southern chapel is called the “Landtingkapellet” and was the manor chapel, from which one could follow the service from a side pulpit. The furnishings bear the mark of the Landting’s influence on the church over 2-3 centuries in both scope and splendor. The church is distinguished by several late Gothic frescoes from around 1500. The baptismal font is Romanesque from the time the church was built. It is richly decorated with pictorial reliefs in a round-arched arcade and an inscription: “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” The altar table has retained its original ashlar plinth, but the altar table’s stone tabletop was, as in the vast majority of other churches, discarded after the Reformation. It has been reused as carved ashlars during the late Gothic new construction, which can be seen on the south wall of the tower, where the middle part of the altar table with the saint’s tomb/saint’s tomb is inserted. The picture above shows that the original blocks were relatively small, here with clear traces of wedge holes from the stonemason's pointed hammer. On the right is the middle piece of the original stone altar table with the obligatory recess for storing martyr relics, the "saint's grave".