Mountain Church St. Nikolaus (Rheinau ZH)

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Bergkirche St. Nikolaus Rheinau ZH (exterior view, from the east)
View from the monastery island
inside view

The Church of St. Nicholas is next to the monastery church , the second large church in Rheinau ZH in the canton of Zurich . It stands a little higher, which is why it is also called the mountain church . It is one of the few simultaneous churches in the canton of Zurich.

Development and construction history

The oldest part of Rheinau is the so-called lower town , whose inhabitants were ecclesiastical to the Church of St. Felix and Regula on the island. Around the year 1126, Count Rudolf von Lenzburg built a city ​​wall on the hill above the lower town , which was flanked on one side by a tower and on the other side by the mountain church of St. Nicholas, built as a separate church . When the ridge was also settled and the city wall was relocated to the former Celtic wall, the mountain church received the function of a parish church for the upper town and was incorporated into the monastery in 1298 . A pastor was named for the first time in 1243, and the altar was consecrated in 1335. During the Reformation , a converted monk from the Rheinau monastery introduced the new faith in the town in 1524, and in 1529 the abbot and monastery community were expelled into exile. After the Kappel War , however, the monks moved back to the monastery and the majority of the residents of Rheinau became Catholic again. The residents of Ellikon , however, remained reformed. Because these were still part of the Rheinau mountain church, it was still used for Reformed church services.

In 1575 the dilapidated Romanesque - early Gothic church collapsed , after which the church was rebuilt in 1578. Unlike the previous building, this second church no longer had a choir tower with a tent roof, but only a roof turret . The three conches with which the nave was completed in an anachronistic manner represent a special feature , as they take up the Romanesque floor plan of the previous church. Around 1600, the abbot of the monastery reintroduced the Catholic church service in the mountain church, whereupon in 1609 an equal comparison was reached between the monastery and the Reformed canton of Zurich. The church was and is used as a simultaneous church by both the Reformed and the Catholic population since then. In 1609 a sacristy and an ossuary were added to the church, in 1636 the altars were consecrated in the three absides and bells were donated. In the 17th century a flat ceiling was drawn into the church and in 1809 the formerly hexagonal Gothic roof turret was replaced by a simpler, box-shaped wooden structure. In 1905 the interior of the church was renewed, with the ceiling being redesigned. The church also received a new pulpit , new stained glass windows and the altars including the painting of the apses in neo-Gothic style.

1970–1971, the design from 1905 was largely reversed, with the neo-Gothic paintings being whitewashed. On August 6, 2004, lightning struck the roof turret of the mountain church, whereupon it burned down. However, the church and its interior were saved. The damage caused by the extinguishing water nevertheless resulted in an overall renovation of the church. After two years of work, the reconstructed roof turret with the bells matched to the ringing of the monastery church and the church interior were handed over to their intended use. Since 2006, the paintings from the 17th or 16th century can be seen again in the cones. On February 1, 2010, the church became the property of the Reformed and Catholic parishes.

Building description

Exterior and roof turrets

The mountain church is located on Schulstrasse 1a in Rheinau in an elevated position above the lower town. The church is east-facing and consists of a nave, which is completed with three medieval-looking cones from the time it was rebuilt in 1578. The roof turret is located on the eastern part of the gable roof. It hides a four-part chime consisting of the Petrus bell donated in 1948 from the monastery church and three new bells. The ringing is tuned to the notes F sharp, B flat, D sharp and F sharp. The windows of the simple church building refer to the late Gothic era of today's church building. The visitor enters the church under a canopy.

  • Stained glass window: Saints Felix and Regula

  • Statue: Church patron Saint Nicholas of Myra

  • Stained glass window: Nikolaus von Flüe and St. Antonius

Interior and artistic equipment

The nave is spanned by a simple dark brown wooden ceiling. The choir is raised one step from the nave and is visually separated by three pointed arches. The middle of these arches is wider than the other two and thus anticipates the shape of the middle conche. Since the interior of the church was redesigned in 2006, the three conches have been colored. The lower part is held in reddish tones and merges into yellow tones. In the middle apse the four symbols of the evangelists can be seen on a star-painted background , which surround the Lamb of God . The groin vault between the cones and the pointed arches is blue. There is a Gothic crucifix next to the entrance to the sacristy . In front of the rows of pews are the baptismal font and behind it the modern folk altar .

organ

After the fire caused by a lightning strike in 2004, the organ was built by Orgelbau Kuhn in 2007 . It is a mechanical instrument with 17 sounding stops , divided into two manuals and a pedal . Due to the limited space, three of the four pedal voices were taken from the main work as transmissions. The organ was inaugurated on June 16, 2007.

Interior: view of the gallery with the Kuhn organ from 2007
I Hauptwerk C – g 3
Principal 8th'
Tube bare 8th'
Flauto dolce 8th'
Octave 4 ′
Flauto 4 ′
Super octave 2 ′
Mixture IV 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Trumpet 8th'
II Swell C – g 3
Dumped 8th'
Salicional 8th'
Unda maris (from c 0 ) 8th'
Reed flute 4 ′
Nazard 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
Flautino 2 ′
third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
oboe 8th'
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
Sub bass 16 ′
Principal bass 8th'
Dumped 8th'
Trumpet 4 ′

literature

Web links

Commons : Bergkirche Nikolaus Rheinau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Flyer about the mountain church Sankt Nikolaus in Rheinau. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  2. ↑ Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. P. 236.
  3. ↑ Flyer about the mountain church Sankt Nikolaus in Rheinau. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  4. ^ Website zh-kirchensports. Section Bergkirche Rehinau. Construction. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  5. ↑ Flyer about the mountain church Sankt Nikolaus in Rheinau. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  6. ^ Website zh-kirchensports. Section Bergkirche Rheinau. History and equipment. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  7. ^ Organ portrait on the website of the builder company. Retrieved May 15, 2015.

Coordinates: 47 ° 38 '38.2 "  N , 8 ° 36' 12.52"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred and eighty-seven thousand five hundred and twenty-eight  /  two hundred seventy-seven thousand six hundred eighty-two