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Jistrum church was built in the 13th century, the tower is a little older and dates from c. 1230. The church was once a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Saint Peter but was stripped of the Saints statues and painted/decorated walls in one week in 1581 during the Protestant Reformation and became a Protestant church. It is a well preserved and complete 13th century Romanesque church built of red brick.
The church has a gabled roof. On the corners of the nave is a buttress in brickwork, the outer walls are on the upper side decorated with so called keper friezen. The north wall has two Romanesque windows located in the higher zone of the wall, and the lower zone has two closed entrances with brick. The southern wall shows a similar layout but has two large lancet windows build in it, with one small Romanesque window at the tower side. The choir has five regular placed Romanesque windows and the nave is covered with a Romanesque-Gothic domevault. In each bay eight ribs come together in a ring. In the west bay the ribs are squire shaped. During a renovation two hagioscopes were discovered and restored. These windows are also known as leprozenruitjes (windows for people with leprosy).
The wooden pulpit from the third quarter of the 17th century is located against the north wall where the choir and bay meet.
Most of the Frisian churches have a golden rooster as weather vane, but on the 20.5 meters high tower of the church a horse is seen. The golden rooster is a symbol of Jesus Christ who breaks the power of the darkness, forgives sins and calls for a new day. The tower had also a rooster in the past, but it was blown of by the wind and could not be repaired. It was then replaced by a horse because it was cheaper. Apparently the price was more important than the symbolic value.
The original bell in the tower from 1759 was stolen by the Germans during World War II, the current bell dateing from 1949. In 2007, the renovation of the church started and the monumental Pipe organ from the other church in town was installed.
References:Rosenborg Palace was built in the period 1606-34 as Christian IV’s summerhouse just outside the ramparts of Copenhagen. Christian IV was very fond of the palace and often stayed at the castle when he resided in Copenhagen, and it was here that he died in 1648. After his death, the palace passed to his son King Frederik III, who together with his queen, Sophie Amalie, carried out several types of modernisation.
The last king who used the place as a residence was Frederik IV, and around 1720, Rosenborg was abandoned in favor of Frederiksborg Palace.Through the 1700s, considerable art treasures were collected at Rosenborg Castle, among other things items from the estates of deceased royalty and from Christiansborg after the fire there in 1794.
Soon the idea of a museum arose, and that was realised in 1833, which is The Royal Danish Collection’s official year of establishment.
