Tillitse Church is a Romanesque building west of the village of

Dannemare Dannemare is a village on the Denmark, Danish island of Lolland located 11 km south of Nakskov and 19 km west of Rødby. As of 2025, it has a population of 377. History and heritage The area has a long history. Hoby treasure, A tomb from the 1st ...

, some south of

Nakskov Nakskov is a market town on the island of Lolland in south Denmark. The town has a population of 12,200 (1 January 2025) and is the largest town on the island of Lolland. It is located in Lolland municipality in Region Sjælland. Nakskov is situ ...

on the Danish island of

Lolland Lolland (; formerly spelled ''Laaland'', literally "low land") is the List of islands of Denmark#List of 100 largest Danish islands, fourth largest island of Denmark, with an area of . Located in the Kattegat, Belts and Sund area, it is part of Re ...

. Built of red brick in the first half of the 13th century, it has an intricately carved auricular

altarpiece An altarpiece is a painting or sculpture, including relief, of religious subject matter made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting or sculpture, ...

created by

Jørgen Ringnis Jørgen Ringnis, also known as "Jørgen Billedsnider", (birth unknown, died 1652 in Nakskov) was a Danish woodcarver. He created a number of altarpieces and pulpits in Danish churches, especially on the islands of Lolland and Falster.

in 1642. An 11th-century runestone stands outside the church entrance.

History

Built in the first half of the 13th century, the church was extended towards the west in the early 17th century. Little is known of its ownership in the Middle Ages but the Crown had clerical appointment rights at the time of the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

. In 1648, it was transferred to the ownership of the Rudbjerggård Estate where over the years it was governed by F.B. Bülow and Gustav Smith. It came into the ownership of Gustav Smith c. 1850 and was transferred to the Friderichsen family in 1850. In c. 1880, it was taken over by Landmandsbanken which transferred it to the local congregation in 1907.

Architecture

The church consists of a Romanesque

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

and

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

. It was extended towards the west in 1625 with a porch on the west gable in 1856. An arched

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

decorates the upper apse, topped by a saw-toothed cornice. Its three finely finished Romanesque windows have now been bricked up. The profile of the chancel's former south door can still be seen. There is a saw-tooth decoration along the top of the chancel with a more recent cornice. The remains of the nave's south portal extend up to the roof. The old Romanesque windows have been replaced by modern pointed-arch windows. There are

lesene A lesene, also called a pilaster strip, is an architectural term for a narrow, low-relief vertical pillar on a wall. It resembles a pilaster, but does not have a base or capital. It is typical in Lombardic and Rijnlandish architectural building ...

s on the east corner but those on the west corner have been removed. There is also an arched decorated topped by a saw-toothed line along the top of the nave.

Interior and furnishings

The carved altarpiece from 1642 is the work of

. It bears the arms of Joachim von Barnewitz, Øllegaard Pentz and Hartwig Passow. The Renaissance

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

from 1608 presents the arms of Knud Rud and Ellen Marsvin. The church also contains a sandstone epitaph for Joachim von Barnewitz (died 1626) and

Øllegaard Hartvigsdatter Pentz Øllegaard Hartvigsdatter Pentz (19 February 1594 – 6 July 1654) was a Danish noble and landholder. Her holdings included the estates Rudbjerggård and Fredsholm on Lolland Lolland (; formerly spelled ''Laaland'', literally "low land") is ...

(16841654). There is a Romanesque font. File:Altertavle, Tillitse kirke.jpg, Altarpiece File:Prædikestol, Tillitse kirke.jpg, Pulpit File:Epitafium, Tillitse kirke, Lolland, Denmark.jpg, Epitaph File:Nordenskirker Tillitse(43).jpg, Font

Graveyard

Notable people buried in the graveyard include

Ludvig Eduard Alexander Reventlow Ludvig is a Scandinavian variant of the German name Ludwig. People with the name include: *Ludvig Åberg, Swedish professional golfer * Ludvig Almqvist, Swedish politician * Ludvig Aubert, Norwegian Minister of Justice * Ludvig Bødtcher, Danis ...

, who purchased the Rudbjerggård estate in 1891.

Runestone

There is a free-standing

runestone A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic alphabet, runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition of erecting runestones as a memorial to dead men began in the 4th centur ...

listed as DR 212 in the

Rundata The Scandinavian Runic-text Database () is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of transliterated runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way for future resea ...

catalog that is outside the church porch. It was originally found in the churchyard wall in c. 1627 and was later used as a foundation for the porch. Dated to the mid-11th century, it is high and wide. The stone contains two inscriptions which read (translated):

References