Bryghuset Kragelund, Silkeborg
Facts and practical information
Kragelund Church is a church in Kragelund Parish in the former Hids Herred, Viborg County, now Silkeborg Municipality. The nave and choir date from around 1150, while the porch and tower were added later. The chancel has a flat east wall and two original windows, which are now bricked up. Both doors with portals are preserved, the north door in bricked-up condition. The south doorway has four half-columns with cube capitals and heavy corbels and round architraves. In the tympanum two lions are visible, on the quoins two dragons around a cross are visible to the east and animals and figures in medallions to the west. On the underside of the tympanum is carved "Æse bød, Vagn ristede." Both builder and stonemason are named here, which is rare in early Danish church art, but who Æse and Vagn were remains to be seen. The north portal also has four half-columns and a tympanum panel with the blessed Christ.
The tower and porch were built in the late Gothic period. The armoury was possibly built of stone from a demolished church in Engesvang. Window lintels and corbels from the choir arch were used for the construction of the armoury, a corbel with arcades is seen to the east of the door, a corbel with two animals around a cross is seen to the west of the door, the relief stone is inserted upside down, the reason for this is not known. The church was restored in 1964-65.
It is probably the same master who has made the south portal in Kragelund and in Låsby. Two dragons biting against crosses are seen on the eastern armstone. On the west armstone, from below, are a lion with its tail hanging down, a man and woman with halos clutching each other, a lion with its tail raised and a cross on its back, and the dove of the Holy Spirit in the upper circle. Two lions resting in the tympanum.
The nave has a flat beamed ceiling, the choir has a built-in octagonal vault in the late Gothic period. When the chancel vault was built in, the chancel arch was rebuilt; the corbels of the chancel arch are now inserted in the masonry of the porch. The altarpiece is a cast-iron sculpture made by Erik Heide in 1966. The pulpit dates from 1645. In the niche of the north door is a Nave from a late Gothic altarpiece. Above the niche is a lintel with reliefs.
The Romanesque baptismal font of granite is of the West Jutland type with a smooth bowl and rim profile and chalices at the bottom of the bowl.
Bryghuset Kragelund – popular in the area (distance from the attraction)
Nearby attractions include: Museum Silkeborg, Old Town Hall, Kunstcentret Silkeborg Bad, Bølling Lake.