Testrup Church and Hospital

Abstract

Testrup Church and Hospital

The present appearance of Testrup Church, which is situated on a hill north of Testrup­gård farm and west of the village of Testrup in Himmerland, is that of a small nave church. Nowadays, Testrup is a remote village, but during the late Middle Ages it was a well-attended place of pilgrimage, centrally situated in the diocese of Viborg and close to the main road from Viborg to Aalborg (fig. 1). At that time, the church was a large Gothic church with transepts and added hospital. According to tradition, the bishop had a farm in the vicinity, which functioned as a centre of church administration. A spring dedicated to the holy Severinus (in Danish, St. Søren) lay near by. Annual markets were held here.

The first written source mentioning Testrup is from 1432. This document has vanished, but Pontoppidan's Den Danske Atlas from 1763-81 informs us of its content. According to this, Bishop Herman of Viborg founded a hospital in Testrup. Testrup is mentioned again in a written source from 1439, this time telling that Bishop Torlav consecrated the church to St. Catherine. After the Reformation, the hospital went to the king. It functioned as a hospital until 1545, when King Christian III donated the farm of Testrupgård and its lands to the hospital in Viborg, which had been founded in 1541. Testrup Hospital was then closed down, and the church began to fall into decay.

In 1699, Testrupgård Farm was sold, and it has been in private ownership since then. The hospital and the western end of the church were presumably demolished in 1748 (fig.2.).

In 1980, the National Museum examined the church in connection with a restoration project, and several areas inside and outside the church were excavated. The results inspired an excavation campaign in 1981-83, during which the rest of the church and the hospital area were investigated (fig. 3). The main purpose of the investigation was to decide the layout of the buildings in the late medieval phase. Today, Testrup Church appears as a 23.5-metres long nave ending in a semicircular apse. The walls are built of large medieval bricks and boulders and rest on a plinth of Romanesque granite ashlars. In the western end, a church entrance opens into a vaulted vestibule (fig. 4).

In 1980, the investigations showed the remains of an older, Romanesque village church underneath the present church. The older church consisted of a nave and a chancel. The ashlars of the present church and some Romanesque ashlars at Testrupgård must come from this older church, the size and appearance of which seems to have resembled other ashlar churches in the area (fig. 5).

The 1981-83-investigation, which included almost the entire west end of the church, showed that the church was originally eleven metres longer and had been constructed as a double wall, mainly built of bricks, with a filled-in cavity and resting on a boulder foundation. The masonry had been whitewashed inside and outside (figs. 6-7).

Three openings were registered in the western end of the church (fig. 8). The doors to the North and South are original, and people thus had access to the church through the tower. Whether the third door in the west gable was original is difficult to establish.

The remains of the bottom step of a spiral staircase was found in the NW corner of the tower (fig. 9), as was the remains of a brick floor covering large parts of the western end of the church. Under this floor, three lead pits were registered. Their positions closely resemble the positions of lead pits found in other medieval churches.

In 1981, the northern transept was partly excavated, and to judge from the boulder foundations, the transept was nine metres wide and eight metres long (fig. 11). The construction of the foundations corresponded to that of the rest of the foundations. No masonry was preserved.

Graves were found in all the excavated areas of the transept. They were interpreted as belonging to the oldest church, as the foundations for the transept had disturbed several of them. Only two graves were excavated, and none of them contained skeletal material.

A small part of the eastern wall of the southern transept was excavated during the church restoration in 1980. A ground survey using spits showed that the dimensions of the southern transept resembled those of the northern transept.

The excavation of the hospital went on from 1980 to 1982. At first, only minor areas were excavated, but eventually the hospital was completely excavated, as was a small building with a baking oven built onto the hospital on the northern side (figs. 3 and 12).

Originally, the hospital was one large building, supposedly with two floors, the lower one of which was vaulted (fig. 20). A passageway was made through the hospital sometime or other, and on its northern side, a building with a large baking oven was erected (figs. 15, 17, 21-22). These changes probably took place simultaneously and according to an overall plan, as the walls of the passage and those of the building with the oven are bonded (fig. 16). The changes of the buildings are difficult to date, but the fact that the openings of the passage were built without a rabbet suggests that the changes took place after the Reformation -perhaps in connection with the closing of the hospital in 1545. The changes altered the layout of the building and turned it into an up-to­date dwelling, perhaps for a vicar?

The excavation also resulted in the unearthing of a 70-cm wide foundation running north-south by the southwestern corner of the hospital (fig. 23). To register more of this building, and other possible buildings, several minor excavations were carried out in the churchyard. The foundation was traced another 5.7 metres from the corner of the hospital. However, the end of it was not established. Although no foundation was established towards the East, this wall sequence is interpreted as part of a southern wing.

Several excavations south of the east end of the hospital, between the hospital and the church, were carried out to establish a possible original four-wing layout. Here, a strong boulder foundation running N-S was found. It turned east c 18 metres south of the church and ended in line with the eastern end of the church (fig. 21).

However, as no foundation parallel to this was found, the structure should probably be interpreted as a support for a strong dike or wall. Perhaps it originates from a churchyard enclosure, as graves were only found east of the hospital.

Thirteen skeletons were found in the floor of the tower and sent to the anthropological laboratory at Copenhagen University for investigation (fig. 25). Two of the skeletons, that of a 10-year-old child and that of an 18-year-old woman had bone changes due to tuberculoses (figs. 26-27). Only 0,1 % of the skeletons excavated in Denmark have signs of tuberculoses, so two out of thirteen skeletons in Testrup showing this disease is a high amount. Although thirteen is a small number for statistics, it is striking that such a large part of skeletons showing diseases are found in connection with a hospital.

East of Testrupgård and SSW of the church is the ruin of a large stone house, "Testrup Stenhus", which was unearthed in c 1860 and scheduled as a historical monument in 1943. In 1982, a survey was made of this ruin, and also elevations of its inner walls (fig. 28). The walls were built of boulders and large medieval bricks and were preserved in a width of 1.1-1.2 metres and in a height of up to 1.7 metres. Towards the west was a door opening with a rabbet. Three window openings were registered in the northern part of the western wall, and two in the southern gable. As two outer walls bear no traces of windows, the building is thought to have been built into a slope.

The remains of a c 50-cm wide foundation at right angles to the western wall and in line with the northern side of the door was probably the base of a staircase or gallery leading to the upper floor (fig. 29). Although the excavation revealed no dating finds, the size of the house and the similarities with other brick-built houses such as the manors of Tjele and Østergård suggest that it was built around 1500.

The connection between the hospital and Testrupgård is unknown. However, as Testrupgård is supposed to have provided the basis for the hospital services, the farm may have functioned as a bailey. Perhaps the bishop stayed here periodically, and the king might have stopped off here on his travels after the Reformation.

The combination of archaeology and history has given a better understanding of the layout of this building complex and its functions in the Middle Ages, and of the structural changes following the Reformation (fig. 30).

The Gothic church had a length of c 35 metres, tower inclusive, and width of nine metres with a 25-metres wide transept. This large church bears comparison with the pilgrim churches of Karup, Kliplev, Holmstrup, and Kippinge. Like these, Testrup presumably was the object of considerable pilgrimage. The sacred spring of St. Severinus probably added to its popularity, although the written sources do not mention this (fig. 31).

The fear of perdition, which prevailed in the late Middle Ages, and the wish for a shorter stay in the Purgatory, which led to the exertion of good deeds, penance and sale and purchase of indulgences, probably formed the spiritual and economical basis for the institutions at Testrup.

The hospital, which was built as an extension of the church towards the West, is a 16.5-metres long and 9-metres wide building, probably with two storeys. It is much smaller than the "Helligåndshus" (House of the Holy Spirit) in Copenhagen, but is the size of the Skt. Hans Kloster (St. John's Monastery) in Odense and the Karmelitterhospital (Carmelites' Hospital) in Helsingør. The bottom storey was a vaulted room furnished as a hall for the sick, as is the case with the preserved hall for the sick in the Helligåndshuset. Whether it had wall recesses for storing the patients' belongings, as in Copenhagen, cannot be determined.

We know of some medieval hospitals connected to monasteries. However, Danish parallels to the combination of pilgrim church and hospital in Testrup are rare. One other example, which combines pilgrim church, hospital, and sacred spring, is the Frue Kirke (the Church of Our Lady) in Karup. This combination occurs elsewhere in Europe, for instance at Ingolstad in Germany.

The hospital in Testrup was no doubt a hospital for the sick and the poor, although the written sources contain no reference to this. Also, the organisation of the hospital -whether, for instance, a certain set of rules were followed- is obscure. We know that the hospital was led by a clerical principal, but who looked after the sick, and where the staff lived is unknown. Also, we do not know how the hospital was connected to the diocese. The economy was probably partly based on charity and money coming from the sacred spring and the pilgrims, and partly based on the estate.

All the hospitals known from the written sources were in a town. The hospitals at Karup and Testrup lie in the country. So far, these two institutions are unique in this respect. Still, other similar institutions may have existed elsewhere in the country. Perhaps some large chapels and large stone buildings in the countryside were hospitals. However, as the layout of a hospital does not differ from that of other buildings, only skeletal material found in connection with the building and carrying distinct traces of diseases will reveal a possible hospital function.

Ann Bodilsen