St. Michael mountain church

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Aerial view of the St. Michael mountain church

The Romanesque mountain church St. Michael is located on the Kirchberg near Büsingen on the Upper Rhine .

Parish history

St. Michael mountain church
View of the Church of St. Michael from Dörflingen after a rain shower
First mention of the Bergkirche Büsingen by Pope Urban II (ecclesiam ad Kirichberch)

The time of the founding of the church is unknown, but probably goes back to well before the year 1000. It is considered to be one of the early country churches of the Diocese of Constance , with an extensive district . The mountain church was the baptismal and Leut church for Büsingen, Gennersbrunn , Widlen, Buchthalen , Schaffhausen , Neuhausen , Rheinhard and Mogern. The Schaffhausen town church St. Johann was a daughter church of the Büsingen mountain church.

The first mention of the church by Pope Urban II in a letter of protection to the monastery of All Saints in Schaffhausen (ecclesia ad Kirichberch) dates back to 1095 . After 1248 the Büsingen parish church was fully incorporated into the Allerheiligen monastery. In 1488 the church was consecrated to St. Michael . In the course of the Reformation , the city of Schaffhausen abolished mass in 1529 , abolished the Allerheiligen monastery and introduced the Zurich Confession in all parishes. Although Büsingen had belonged to the Grand Duchy of Baden since 1810 , the Schaffhausen regional church had ecclesiastical rights until 1843. In 1835 a new church was built in the village of Büsingen and the mountain church then served as a summer church.

Building history

The nave , sacristy and tower are among the oldest Romanesque components and probably date to the 11th and 12th centuries. The early medieval lighting is only interrupted today by a late Gothic window that was created during the Reformation. During this time, the church decorations were removed and the paintings from the Gothic period were whitewashed. A more extensive renovation in the 17th century led to an extension of the ship to the west. All subsequent restoration measures (1823, 1953, 1977, 1979) mainly served to preserve the church in its Romanesque appearance.

description

Interior view of the nave and choir

The east-facing church is characterized by the simple, single-nave nave with small, high-lying arched windows. It is a flat-roofed hall church with a retracted, just closed choir . The considerable height is typical of the high Romanesque period. The defensive wall, which completely encloses the church, the sacristan's house and the farm building as well as the cemetery, also dates from this time.

In the middle of the square chancel there is a simple, octagonal baptismal font . The east window, created by Gian Casty , a glass painter from Graubünden, dates back to 1977 and depicts Christ crucified. In the north wall by the pulpit is the late Gothic window built during the Reformation.

organ

The interior of the nave is closed off by a flat wooden ceiling that was newly installed in 1953. A small organ was installed in the simple, wooden west gallery in 1960, which was replaced in 2000 by a new Wegscheider organ (two-manual, 15 stops ).

Peal

There are three bells hanging in the tower, with the strike tone sequence c sharp 1 –e 1 –g sharp 1 . During the Second World War, all three bells for the armaments industry were confiscated. Two of them returned unharmed in 1948. The third and largest was commissioned in 1978 from the Rüetschi bell foundry in Aarau. In 2006 the smallest bell from the 13th century was replaced by a new bell from the bell foundry of the Maria Laach monastery .

use

After the village church was built (1835), the mountain church was used less and less, mainly for funeral services. Nowadays it is a frequently used wedding church that is open to all denominations. The Friends of the Bergkirche zu Büsingen eV organizes regular concerts. Chamber music days have been held every year in August since 1993. In 2004 Andreas Jetter was appointed titular organist .

Landscape protection area

The 415 m high Kirchberg, on which the mountain church rises about 25 meters above the surrounding landscape (Rhine near Büsingen: 392 m), has been a protected landscape area since April 19, 1939 . The area has the protected area number 3.35.001 and an area of ​​17 ha.

literature

  • F. Götz, A. Schiendorfer, G. Eiglsperger: 900 years Büsingen - a German community in Switzerland. Self-published by the municipality, Büsingen 1990, ISBN 3-921413-23-0 .
  • Ursula Wolf and Hans Lieb: The Bergkirche Büsingen (= Swiss Art Guide, Volume 531). Edited by the Society for Swiss Art History GSK, Bern 1993, ISBN 3-85782-531-6 .

Web links

Commons : Bergkirche St. Michael (Büsingen)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Wolf and Hans Lieb: Swiss Art Guide GSK, Volume 531: The Bergkirche Büsingen . Bern 1993. p. 4ff
  2. ↑ Ursula Wolf and Hans Lieb: The mountain church Büsingen . Swiss Art Guide GSK, Volume 531. Bern 1993. S. 8f.
  3. ↑ Ursula Wolf and Hans Lieb: The mountain church Büsingen. Swiss Art Guide GSK, Volume 531. Bern 1993. P. 10ff.
  4. ^ F. Götz, A. Schiendorfer, G. Eiglsperger: 900 years of Büsingen - a German community in Switzerland . Self-published by the municipality, Büsingen 1990. p. 85
  5. ↑ http://www.bergkirche-buesingen.de/glocken/
  6. ↑ http://www.bergkirche-buesingen.de/hochzeiten/
  7. ↑ http://www.kammermusiktage.de
  8. ↑ Biography on muenstermusik-radolfzell.de, accessed on October 11, 2017.

Coordinates: 47 ° 41 '54.2 "  N , 8 ° 42' 14.1"  E