Højerup Old Church at Stevns Klint
A guided tour of the church can be booked by contacting Østsjællands Museum, 5650 2806.
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The Story of Højerup Old Church
The original church is a Young Gothic building from c. 1250, built of chalk ashlar quarried from the cliff. (More recent research dates it to c. 1357, see Valdemar Atterdag and Højerup Church on the tip of Stevns (Ebbe Nyborg in Festschrift for Peter Zeeberg 2017))
The sacristy on the north side, whose roof blocks the old north window, was added in the 15th century. The tower was built around the year 1500, while the porch is later – presumably around 1550. The porch is mainly built of monk bricks with belts of chalk quads. The roof construction on the nave is the original, but was reinforced about 250 years ago.
The church is first mentioned during the time of Valdemar Atterdag, when in 1357 it was consecrated to John the Baptist and to the fishermen's patron saint St. Clement in connection with a rededication of the church after a rebuilding of the choir.
The tablet, which we see on the South Wall, is a transcript of, and a replacement for, the original copper tablet, which King Christian IV confiscated at the beginning of the 17th century. The text is naturally Latin – it was written long before the Reformation.
It states: When Valdemar IV was king and with greatest fame on Funen had defeated the Holsteiners' strong army, Count Klaus having been taken prisoner, this church on the outermost headland was consecrated by Mr. Henrik Gertsen, bishop of Roskilde, in honour of St. John the Baptist and St. Clement the martyr in the year of our Lord 1357, the Tuesday after the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. (12th Sept.)
As early as 1682, the church came into private ownership, as Christian V transferred the church to his queen Charlotte Amalie. The queen already owned Gjorslev, Søholm, Erikstrup and Vemmetofte estates (this was most of Stevns), and she placed Højerup church under Gjorslev Estate. In 1918, estate owner Frederik Scavenius transferred the church to the company Højeruplund, which still owns the church. However, it is protected in Class A and under the supervision of the National Museum.
The disaster – the Klinteskred landslide of 1928:
A legend tells of a skipper in distress at sea who vowed to build a church if he were brought to shore safely.
Another, more famous legend states that the church moves one rooster's stride inland every Christmas Eve to avoid falling down.
The Hanefjed saga is a poetic expression of how slowly the sea had undermined the cliff over centuries. In 1776, the distance to the cliff edge was 16 ells, i.e. about 10 metres. A good hundred years later, in 1892, this measurement had only decreased by 1 ell.
But from here, it all happened quickly. Had humans not intervened in nature, the Church would likely still stand in its entirety today.
The issue was that the enterprising landowner Scavenius at Gjorslev had begun to exploit the cliff commercially by cutting chalk stone from it.
Production trebled in the period from 1840 to the 1870s, when it reached 270,000 chalkstones per year. The quarries were located on both sides of the church. Gradually, the churchyard extended out into the sea like a headland, which greedily took its toll. In 1910, the church was closed. The sea had eaten its way so far into the soft writing chalk, which lies at the bottom, that it was no longer considered safe to hold services in the church.
A new church was built at a safe distance from the cliff edge, and it was consecrated in 1913.
It still took 18 years before the disaster struck.
The summer of 1927 was the wettest in living memory. all the cracks and crevices deep down into the chalk layers were filled with water when the frost set in during the relatively harsh winter.
On 16 March 1928, early in the morning, the whole lot came loose east of the church and tumbled down. The east cemetery wall, the eastern part of the cemetery, and the chancel of the church collapsed. The Old Church, perched on the cliff edge, was suddenly known throughout the country. Thousands of people flocked here to see the damage and destruction. It could all have been prevented. !!!
In the same year, a state grant was provided for the future preservation of the Church.
Securing the old church at Højerup:
Against the waves, a defence was established, a breakwater of large stones out into the sea.
A concrete wall was erected against the weak moraine layer. It is founded on the hard chalk layer and anchored at the top with three large steel girders, which are dug down under and through the church lengthwise – to then be anchored again in large concrete blocks just west of the church.
During the excavation of the ditches through the church, a medieval grave was found approximately 70 cm below ground level. The 150 cm long grave itself, dug into the hard clay, had a rounded head section and broad shoulders, narrowing towards the foot end. A couple of chalk flakes served as the lid.
The church's historic wall paintings:
Presumably painted in connection with the rededication in 1357.
At the top of the north wall:
Saint George on horseback in combat with the dragon, and immediately to the west of it, another dragon.
At the bottom of the North Wall:
West: Abraham sacrifices Isaac.
Middle: Saint Christopher.
To the left of the window, in a smaller format: Saint Olav with his axe, which has a short, straight shaft. Red is the dominant colour.
The northern part of the triumphal arch (east arch):
The murder of the innocents in Bethlehem. Nearest the corner stands Herod as a slender nobleman in a tight, short tunic with a belt around his hips.
The women at Jesus' tomb.
South of the elbow: Jesus appears as a gardener to the sinner.
A couple of apostolic figures. The southernmost is Peter with the key.
In 2016, thanks to a grant from the Augustinus Foundation, the National Museum conducted a preliminary study of the . Unfortunately, the result was disappointing: with current techniques, it is not possible to completely remove the algal growth on the walls without damaging the wall paintings. The paintings were cleaned and the room was placed under climate observation to see if it was possible to find a way to lower the high humidity that makes algal growth possible.
The work formed the basis for an article in the National Museum's Arbejdsmark 2017, p. 187: A reconstructed message – the wall paintings in Højerup Old Church, by Martin Wangsgaard Jürgensen and Susanne Ørum.
The altarpiece
This is from 1599. The rural joinery appears naive, C4, R D (Rex Dania) the King's monogram on the top ornament. On the large wings is painted a coat of arms with letters referring to Christian Holck, District Governor of Tryggevælde and Mrs. Karen Krabbe. In the main field: The Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain.
The cabin's north window
An altarpiece with a wooden figure of St. Clement stood here. The figure dates back to the 14th century, perhaps from the same period as the wall paintings.
On top of the cupboard stood a statue of Mary, also made of wood from the 1400–1450 period.
Both figures were repainted in the 1800s.
St. Clement's statue was stolen in connection with a burglary at the church around 1999.
The pulpit
From 1605 – of the Tryggevælde type. In the pedestal fields is painted Anno 1605, in the time Ditløff Holck was captain at Tryggevælde this pulpit was made at the Church's expense.
The Door to the Armoury:
From 1557 by a younger Late Gothic Steward.
Two dragons, whose tails, horns and wings are dissolved into gothic tracery. Of the square fields, the top three have strapwork around arrows and with incised wave-line borders. The remaining circles with rosettes or shields, in which Christ's heart, hands and feet are.
Where the field with the Saviour's right hand should be, a more recent painted field has been inserted: 1704 this piece was struck by lightning.
A priest's report from 1755 states that lightning struck near the pulpit, where the wall cracked and burst out through the church door.