Braaby Church

{{Infobox church | name = Braaby Church | native_name = Bråby Kirke | native_name_lang = da-DK | image = File:Nordenskirker Braabyx(01).jpg | location = Bråby, [[Faxe Municipality]], [[Denmark]] | denomination = [[Church of Denmark]] | architectural_type = [[Romanesque style]] | years_built = c. 1100 | parish = Bråby Sogn | diocese = [[Diocese of Roskilde]] }}

'''Braaby Church''' ([[Danish language|Danish]]: ''Bråby Kirke'') is a [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] [[Denmark|Danish]] church located in the [[Diocese of Roskilde]], [[Faxe Municipality]] in [[Region Sjælland]] on the island of [[Zealand (Denmark)|Zealand]]. There have been substantial [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]] additions to the original 12th-century building.

==History and architecture== [[File:BraabyKirke.jpg|thumb|Braaby Church]] [[File:Brårup (Faxe).jpg|thumb|Braaby Church, Brårup (Faxe)]] The precise date of the church's construction is not known but it was first documented around 1370 when it consisted of the current [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] [[nave]] and a smaller [[chancel]], both built of limestone blocks.<ref>[http://thyrashm.blogspot.dk/2012/08/gisselfeld-and-braby-church-braby-kirke.html "Gisselfeld and Bråby church/ Bråby kirke, Ringsted herred, Sorø amt, Zealand"], Church and Manor in Denmark. Retrieved 23 April 2013.</ref> In about 1500, the tower, porch and north chapel were added with decorations consisting of belts of brick and limestone. Today's chancel was constructed in c. 1570. After [[Steward of the Realm (Denmark)|Steward of the Realm]] [[Peder Oxe]] had built nearby [[Gisselfeld Manor]] in 1556, he received Braaby Church as a gift from [[Christian III of Denmark|King Christian III]].<ref name="Majvang1967">{{cite book|last=Majvang|first=Arne|title=Haslev og Freerslev Sognes historie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wvpBAAAAIAAJ|access-date=24 April 2013|year=1967|publisher=Aage Sands Boghandel|page=80|language=da}}</ref> The church remained in the ownership of Gisselfeld until 1967.<ref name=nk>[http://www.nordenskirker.dk/Tidligere/Braaby_kirke/braaby_kirke.htm "Bråby kirke"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110131085958/http://nordenskirker.dk/Tidligere/Braaby_kirke/braaby_kirke.htm |date=2011-01-31 }}, ''Nordens Kirker''. {{in lang|da}} Received 23 April 2013.</ref>

==Interior== In 1880, a vault was constructed in place of the wooden ceiling. The tomb headpiece in the nave adjacent to the north chapel is from 1695.<ref name="Olsen2010">{{cite book|last=Olsen|first=Soren|title=Danmark - 4.000 oplevelser - historie/kultur/natur|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=enpsZFbB6CwC&pg=PA442|access-date=24 April 2013|year=2010|publisher=Gyldendal A/S|isbn=978-87-02-07737-7|page=442|language=da}}</ref> It is decorated with a skull flanked by [[volute]]s. The [[cornice]] bears 14 ancestral arms with an inscription stating: "The nobleman Adam Levith Knuth of Gisselfeld and Assendrup who was born 1 March 1648 in Meklenburg and died 13 January 1699 has completed this tomb and memorial for his soul's eternal rest and his corporal remains." It is headed by a large carving bearing the family arms surrounded by symbols of war.<ref name=nk/>

Below the memorial windows, there is a carved depiction of a young woman with wavy hair sitting in a wooded landscape. She is caressing a dog with her left hand while she hushes with the fingers of her right hand. The inscription from Proverbs 11, verse 12, reads "But a man of understanding remains silent." Below the memorial, there is a crypt with the coffins of Knuth, Sophia Ulfeldt of Orebygård (died 1698) and her daughter Countess Hilleborg Holck (died 1724) who was Knuth's longstanding fiancée. A batch of letters was found in her coffin which might explain why they never married but out of respect for the deceased they have not been read.<ref name=nk/>

The [[rood screen]] (1695) bears Knuth's arms with a black kettle hook. The painting on the [[altarpiece]] is by [[Constantin Hansen]] (1833). The [[pulpit]] is from 1862. On the north wall of the chancel there is an [[epitaph]] to Peder Oxe who died in 1575. It was completed before his death and although he was buried in [[Church of Our Lady (Copenhagen)|Church of Our Lady]] in [[Copenhagen]], the date of his death has been added. The epitaph states that Braaby Church has been moved to Gisselfeld. This never happened but he was so convinced that his plans would be carried out and the church would be moved stone by stone that he included it in his epitaph.<ref name=nk/>

[[File:Nordenskirker Braabyx(12).jpg|thumb|Baptismal font (detail).]] [[Gotland]] [[limestone]] has been used to make the [[Baptismal font|font]] from the later part of the 12th century. It is akin to the font seen in [[Bornholm]], though the decorations are different; these are inferred to be by an artist of Zealand. The bowl of the font has decorations made in relief. They depict the [[Three Kings]] and [[Saint Anne]] holding the baby [[Jesus]]. Also seen in the relief are other scenes of an angel restraining a hunter, a deer, a cross turned towards the hunter, satan in the form of an ape, and horses saddled but without the riders, the central horse carrying a [[falcon]]. The plinth also has relief decorations of a bishop, two snakes being nursed by a woman, a snake, and also of a book with a cross and [[griffin]].<ref name=nk/>

==Burials== * [[Adam Levin Knuth]] (1648-1699), statesman and landowner (inside the church) * [[Carl Adolph Kraft]] (1876-1964), military officer and sportsman * [[Frederik Christian Kaas (1727–1804)|Frederik Christian Kaas]] (1727-1804), naval officer and landowner * [[Frants Lassen]] (1922-1997), captain, chamberlain and Resistance Fighter * [[Otto Frederik Christian Rasmussen]] (1814-1888), writer, historian and estate manager

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://sogn.dk/braaby/ Braaby parish website] {{in lang|da}}

[[Category:Churches in Faxe Municipality]] [[Category:14th-century churches in Denmark]] [[Category:Romanesque architecture in Denmark]] [[Category:Lutheran churches converted from Roman Catholicism]] [[Category:Churches in the Diocese of Roskilde]]