Birket Church

{{Infobox church | image = File:Birket kirke, Lolland 01.jpg | name = Birket Church | native_name = Birket Kirke | native_name_lang = Danish | country = [[Denmark]] | location = [[Birket]], [[Lolland]] | denomination = [[Church of Denmark]] | parish = Birket Sogn | deanery = | diocese = [[Diocese of Lolland–Falster]] | founded = | style = [[Gothic architecture]] }}

'''Birket Church''' ([[Danish language|Danish]]: Birket Kirke) is located south of the little village of [[Birket]], some {{convert|14|km|abbr=on}} northeast of [[Nakskov]] on the Danish island of [[Lolland]]. Its [[chancel]] was originally the nave of the brick [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]] church built in 1350.<ref name=nk>[http://www.nordenskirker.dk/Tidligere/Birket_kirke/Birket_kirke.htm "Birket kirke"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110914212356/http://www.nordenskirker.dk/Tidligere/Birket_kirke/Birket_kirke.htm |date=2011-09-14 }}, ''Nordens Kirker''. {{in lang|da}} Retrieved 29 July 2013.</ref> The bell tower, which stands apart from the church, is believed to be Denmark's oldest standing wooden structure.<ref name=bla>[http://www.birketsogn.dk/index-filer/Page1704.htm "Birket Kirke"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130607090250/http://www.birketsogn.dk/index-filer/Page1704.htm |date=June 7, 2013 }}, Birket Lokalhistorisk Arkiv. {{in lang|da}} Retrieved 30 July 2013.</ref>

==History== [[File:Kort over Birket Sogn. Lollands Nörre Herred, Maribo Amt.jpg|thumb|left|180px|Map of Birket Parish.]] Built around 1350, the church is rather younger than many country churches in the area which are typically from the 12th and 13th centuries.<ref name=bla/> Until 1687, it had its own parish priest but it was then annexed to Vesterborg until 1914. After the [[Danish Reformation|Reformation]] it came under the ownership of the Crown but in 1686 was transferred to Pedr Brandt of [[Pederstrup]]. The church became independent in 1914.<ref name=natmus>[http://danmarkskirker.natmus.dk/uploads/tx_tcchurchsearch/Maribo_0634-0649.pdf Kirsten Weber-Andersen, Otto Norn, Aage Roussell, Gertrud Købke Knudsen, "Birket Kirke"], ''Danmarks kirker: Maribo amt, Volume 8'', 1951, Nationalmuseet, pages 634-649. {{in lang|da}} Retrieved 14 July 2013.</ref>

==Architecture== The church, built of brick on a fieldstone base, consists of a chancel, a nave and a porch. The chancel with its three-sided eastern gable is all that remains of the original brick building from c. 1350. Around 1500, the original nave was replaced by the nave in the [[Gothic architecture|Late Gothic]] style which stands today. The vaulted ceilings of the nave and chancel were added at the same time. The church's exterior is now plastered over and painted yellow.<ref name=nk/>

==Bell Tower== [[File:BIRKET~1 cropped.JPG|thumb|180px|Wooden bell tower (c. 1350)]] The wooden [[bell tower]] which stands apart from the church near the main entrance to the churchyard is the best preserved example of its kind in Denmark's country churches and one of the finest Medieval timber structures still standing in Denmark and possibly the oldest. Built on the top of an ancient [[tumulus|burial mound]], it consists of a heavy framework of oak on a fieldstone foundation.<ref name=natmus/> The exterior covering of tarred planks has been replaced several times over the years, most recently in 1974.<ref name=bla/><ref>[http://historiskatlas.dk/Birket_kirke_(5688) "Birket kirke"], ''Historisk Atlas''. {{in lang|da}} Retrieved 1 August 2013.</ref> It was one of the bell towers studied when the [[open-air museum]] [[Middelaldercentret]] on western Lolland build a bell tower in 2009.<ref name='årsberetning2009'>{{cite web | url=http://www.guldborgsund.dk/eDagsorden/committee_100/agenda_76970/documents/20305025e37.pdf | format=PDF | title=Årsberetning 2009 | last=Hansen | first=Peter Vemming | publisher=Guldborgsund Kommune | date=2010-05-12 | accessdate=2014-03-30 | archive-date=2016-03-24 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324040611/http://www.guldborgsund.dk/eDagsorden/committee_100/agenda_76970/documents/20305025e37.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Interior== The church's former [[altarpiece]], a triptych carved by [[Benedict Dreyer]] of [[Lübeck]] in the early 16th century, is now in the [[National Museum of Denmark|National Museum]]. It has been replaced by a painting from c. 1800 of Christ's burial attributed to Johan Georg Wahl. The [[pulpit]] from the second half of the 18th century has been put together from pieces of various origins, some perhaps from an earlier pulpit. The polygonal Gothic [[baptismal font|font]], as old as the church itself, is in [[Gotland]] limestone. Its reliefs depict two birds, an eagle, a cock and a fanciful combination of a lion's body, a horse's head and a human face.<ref name=natmus/>

==Frescos== [[File:Nordenskirker Birketx06.jpg|thumb|Frescos in the chancel]] In 1900, [[Church frescos in Denmark|frescos]] depicting a [[Gethsemane]] scene were discovered in the chancel by [[Jacob Kornerup]] who restored them in 1910.<ref name=natmus/> Jesus is depicted before an altar bearing a chalice containing rice, corn and a whip. The three apostles are shown reading as soldiers in armor typical of the 16th century arrive. A pelican with a halo stands in the centre, reflecting a passage from [[Book of Revelation|Revelation]].<ref name=nk/>

==See also== * [[List of churches on Lolland]]

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Birket Kirke}} * [http://www.birketarkiv.dk/index-filer/Page3324.htm Parish priests] at the church

[[Category:Churches in Lolland]] [[Category:Gothic architecture in Denmark]] [[Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1350]] [[Category:Christian bell towers]] [[Category:Church frescos in Denmark]] [[Category:Lutheran churches converted from Roman Catholicism]] [[Category:Churches in the Diocese of Lolland–Falster]]