Vesterende Ballum

Photographed in June, 2014 by James Derheim, founder of European Focus Photography and European Focus Private Tours. 

Ballum church is unusually large, and is located in the northwestern part of Ballum parish.

The large cemetery is fenced by boulder dykes, which have been broken by buildings from earlier times in several places in the south and west. In front of smaller openings in the south and north there are 3 walled portals which form the access roads to the church and cemetery.

The church consists of apse, chancel and nave from Romanesque times, with a late Gothic tower and sacristy as well as Renaissance porch (functions today as a chapel) on the north side of the church. Kirkender is built partly of tuff and partly of brick, the whitewash appears with the exception of the tower, which is of red brick. The roofs are all covered with lead. The tower has a height of 104 feet or approx. 31 meters.

The church was built in the 12th century. In 1216, Ribe Bispen, to whose archdeacon the church was located, received confirmation of the transfer of the income of the churches in Tønder and Ballum to two newly established prebends. During the Reformation, the church came under the king, but in 1661 Hans Schack acquired the right of patronage, and the church then belonged to the county Schackenborg, until it passed into private ownership on October 1, 1931. During the Swedish wars in the 17th century, the church suffered greatly. A petition to the king in 1654 for help with the church’s restoration states that the Swedes had used the church as a place of defense and had cannons in the tower. 

From: https://romo-tonder.dk/en/alleattraktioner/ballum-kirke/

Google maps coordinates: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Vesterende+31B,+6261+Bredebro,+D%C3%A4nemark/@55.091455,8.658694,12z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x47b4c9596582b325:0xd700702934c7bb4b!8m2!3d55.0902722!4d8.6582642!16s%2Fg%2F11bw4mhnjp?hl=de-DE&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDEwNy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D