Ventlinge Church
Church environment
Ventlinge cemetery encircles the church on the slope of the western fault line just east of the western main road, not far from Grönhögen. From the cemetery, you can see the Kalmar Strait in the west.
The area between the cemetery and the main road consists of a small park which also houses the memorial grove. In the east, just outside the cemetery wall its arable land. South of the cemetery is the old teacher’s apartment.
The church
Ventlinge church was built during the first half of the 12th century. The church was at this time a church without a tower in the Romanesque style and was dedicated to St. Lawrence.
The church had a rectangular nave and a lower and narrower chancel in the east ended with a semicircular apse. The tower was built around 1200th
During the centuries the church underwent many minor changes. In 1812, a comprehensive repair and extension and the church was performed and the church then lost its medieval character.
The chancel and apse were demolished and the nave was extended, and at the eastern gable was a sacristy built. The rebuilding to a modern hall church was led by Johan Petersson from Kalmar.
A lantern designed by JAC Wilenius was built in 1825 by Håkan Göth, from Seby and the church bell was moved up in the tower. A church porch was set up in the medieval defense tower in 1880 after the drawing of Otto August Mankell. The altarpiece is from the 18th century.
Restorations and repairs have been carried out in 1925, -52, -68, -84 and 1999.
Inside the church is a baptismal font foot from early 13th century.
Memorial grove
A memorial grove was built and inaugurated in 1998. It was built just outside and adjacent to the cemetery wall to the west of the so-called Church Park.
In the fund against the wall is planted rhododendrons and around the stone with the word “Minneslund” (Memorial grove) engraved grows blue shrubby juniper. Otherwise it is planted cherry laurel that separates the grove to the north and south and in front of the plantation are added limestone tiles.
Buildings
Outside the cemetery, in the south-east, is a large building that houses storage room and toilets for the public.
Other
On the cemetery wall is a pair of fragments with inscriptions probably from the early 19th century. Except from a “tumba” (a stone sarcophagus) just south of the church, the cemetery lacks today older tombstones.
The “Tumba” is for Jacob Brunnerus and his wife Anna Elisabeth Reuter. Brunnerus was in the 18th century the vicar of Ventlinge and Ås congregations. He died in 1794, a year after his wife.
Not far from the church’s southern entrance is since 1952 the fiddler Gotthard Sjöman buried. He is the author of “Kruspolska, Kvarnpolska” and “Brudmarch till far (Bridal march to father)”
Poet Anna Rydstedt is buried on the south side of the church. On her tomb is a beautiful line engraved ”jag är också född och vuxen till det enda, att vara Anna i världen” (I was born and grown up to the one, to be Anna in the world)
Source: Kalmar Läns Museum, Kalmar County Museum
Translation: Visitoland.com