Bavnehøj

Facts

Lolland's largest burial mound

By Flemming Kaul, Museumsinspektør, mag. art. (31 stories)

Lolland is the flattest part of Denmark, but up towards the northwest, the landscape is quite hilly. Lolland's highest point, 30 metres above sea level, is the site of Bavnehøj. This is Lolland's largest burial mound, seven metres high and 35 metres in diameter. From the top, you can see it is not alone. It is one of a cluster of burial mounds that crown the ridge near Birket. The two furthest south are in the churchyard by Birket Church. Bavnehøj has never been excavated, so no one knows what secrets it conceals. But one of the neighbouring burial mounds that has now been removed contained several Bronze Age graves.

Public place

Selected entry

Mediaeval bell tower

Story written by Flemming Kaul

Time / Periode -1400

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What is that building on the burial mound near Birket churchyard? It is a mediaeval wooden belfry or bellframe" built in about 1350. The belfry is one of the best preserved freestanding wooden buildings of its time. Tandslet Church on Als also has a well-kept bellframe built on an old burial mound. Excavations in the huge Sydhøj in Jelling in eastern Jutland have also revealed the foundations of a mediaeval bellframe that once crowned the burial mound. It made the tower a lot taller. The belfries were put on top of the burial mounds so the sound of the bells would carry much further. The old heathen burial mounds were reused for Christian purposes. "