A South Dakotan TikToker and her sisters were visiting Gjerdrum, a small town on the northwestern outskirts of Oslo, where their ancestors had once lived. They toured Gjerdrum kirke, the church where their grandfather had been baptized, but could not have been prepared for what happened next.
A man at the church invited them to step down a set of creaky winding stairs into a crypt under the church’s altar. There they saw a large ornate coffin that had seen better days. In fact, the lid had several large holes. Their guide said that if they wanted to take a photo between some of the holes in the lid, they could take a view of what lay within.
To their surprise, the coffin contained a well-preserved mummy, with his arms crossed over his chest. But who was this person? Further questioning of the caretaker revealed that the deceased was one Anders Simensen who who’d been the deputy of Øvre Romerike in 1684. A wealthy resident of Søndre Gjerdrum gård, Simensen was an influential and imposing man at 6’4”.
A church has stood on these grounds since the middle ages but wasn’t doing so well during the 17th century. Simensen had helped the church financially, paying for restorations after a fire in 1684 and a full rebuild in 1686, so he basically owned the church and was granted the power to appoint pastors. According to the Eidsvoll Ullensaker Blad (eub.no), Simensen had sent a letter to the king to request that he be mummified upon his death. King Christian V gave him the right to be buried under the church along with his descendants. Only 10 years after Simensen had restored the church, he got his wish.
Surprisingly intact for a 338 year-old mummy, it is unknown why Simensen wished to be embalmed, as this was not a practice of the era. He had built his own crypt and had an ornate coffin upholstered with leather and festooned with trumpet-playing angels. Simensen’s wife and daughter were later laid to rest in the crypt, though not with the same level of preservation and pomp.
Humidity has been the greatest threat to Simensen’s resting place. According to rb.no, in 2007 there was a question about whether to bury Simensen, when a fungus started to spread over the coffin. These days, teens who are confirmed in Gjerdrum church are allowed a peek in the coffin, along with—apparently—curious tourists.
The TikTok Video by bestbelcher includes photos of this excursion, if you want to catch a glimpse of the mummy, coffin, and the church’s interior.
Sources:
https://www.rb.no/lokale-nyheter/311-ar-gammelt-lik-truet-av-sopp/s/1-95-2957705
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Gjerdrum kirke (kirken.no)
https://www.eub.no/mumien-under-kirken-her-har-han-ligget-siden-1696/s/5-136-54456