Hesselager Church

Facts

A family church

Hesselager Church on Funen with its curved gables looks like a renaissance building. The nave is Romanesque, though. The tower and a new choir were added in the late Middle Ages. The church has a series of rather peculiar murals from 1481 or 1487 that were painted by the clog painter". The Friis family from Hesselagergaard Manor has really left its mark on the church. Some members of the family are buried in the church and the south chapel contains an impressive marble memorial to the Friis family. The memorial was erected by Niels Friis, who lived from 1544 until 1610. He also converted the church barn north of the church into a school in 1597. "

Public place

Selected entry

Culturally heavy-handed farmer

Story written by Peter Pentz

Time / Periode 1150 1250

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The Friis family from Hesselagergård feature clearly in Denmark's history as well as in Hesselager Church. In 1585, when Lundeborg near Hesselagergaard was being ploughed, a farmer struck gold. The treasure no longer exists but the National Museum has a gold medal bearing a picture of a women. The medal is inscribed: We are of an old treasure, ploughed from a field in Lundeborg on Funen in 1585. Niels Friis, Wibeke Gyldenstjerne". Landowner Niels Friis showed his rather heavy-handed interest in ancient relics by having the rest of the treasure melted down. His son Jesper Friis, who lived from 1593 until 1643, on the other hand, established a museum. It contained many items, some that he had acquired while travelling through Europe, Egypt and Palestine. The National Museum has two Egyptian stone sarcophaguses from this museum that were rediscovered in 1782 being used as watering troughs in Kerteminde. "