Brabrand Church 1.44

Brabrand Church is a church located in Brabrand Parish in Aarhus, Denmark. The church is situated in the neighbourhood Brabrand by Brabrand Lake, west of Midtbyen. The church was originally devoted to St. Martin but is today a parish church in the Church of Denmark, serving a parish population of 6.962 . The Brabrand Church pastorate is shared with the South Aarslev Church to the west. The resistance fighter Alf Tolboe Jensen, executed during the Second World War, is interred in the church cemetery.HistoryThe church was originally situated in the village of Brabrand which has over time developed into a neighbourhood of Aarhus. Population in the parish has increased a lot which has left a substantial mark on the church as it has been altered and enlarged a number of times. It is difficult to determine which are the original part and which are later additions. The cross-hatched area in the ground-plan shows, the chancel and the east part of the nave are all that is preserved of the first stone-built church on the site. The oldest sections of the building may well date back to the latter half of the 12th century.ArchitectureThe oldest sections are built of rough and split granite boulders. Few original windows are still to be found in the chancel and there are moulded imposts in the chancel arch. The relatively solid brick masonry at the west end of the earlier part of the church seems to indicate that a tower, which has since disappeared, was added to the nave in the Late Middle Ages. A porch, of which a few remains may have been included in the present extension for the altar dates from the same period.