Brother Klaus (Volketswil)
The Brother Klaus Volketswil Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Zurich Oberland . It is located at Feldhofstrasse 25 in Volketswil . It is one of the 15 remaining Fastenopfer churches in Switzerland.
history
History and naming
In 1370 a St. Agatha chapel in Volketswil was named as a branch of the Uster parish, which was mentioned a second time in 1418. From 1521 St. Agatha was its own chaplain with the right to errands and baptisms, but funerals, memorials and the Easter obligation had to be held in the mother church in Uster. The collature lay with the council of Zurich, the chaplain’s right to present and vote had been with the community since 1521. After the Reformation in Zurich in 1524, Catholic services were banned in what is now the canton of Zurich, which is why the St. Agatha Chapel was used for Reformed services from then on.
The Edict of Tolerance of the Zurich Government Council of September 10, 1807 allowed a Catholic community in Zurich for the first time. The so-called First Zurich Church Law in 1863 recognized the Catholic parishes in Zurich as well as in Winterthur , Dietikon and Rheinau (the last two were traditionally Catholic places). On the basis of association law, Catholic branches could then be established throughout the canton. With the help of support associations such as the Piusverein (founded in 1857) and the Catholic Society for Domestic Missions (founded in 1863), further pastoral care stations and later parishes in the canton of Zurich were established in quick succession in the 1860s: Männedorf (1864), Gattikon-Thalwil / Langnau (1864), Horgen (1865), Pilgersteg-Rüti / Wald (1866), Wald and Bubikon (1873), Uster (1876), Langnau (1877), Rüti (1878), Wädenswil (1881), Bülach (1882) , Wetzikon (1890), Bauma (1894), Adliswil (1894), Pfungen (1895), Dübendorf (1897) and Küsnacht (1901). So it happened that by 1900 there were already 20 Catholic parishes in the canton of Zurich, including the one in Uster, from which the parish of Brother Klaus Volketswil emerged as a subsidiary parish in the 20th century.
Development and construction history
After the Herz Jesu-Kirche Uster was blown up and the new Church of St. Andreas Uster was built, including the parish center and parsonage, the construction of the congregation Johannes XXIII. (Greifensee) and Volketswil. While in the 1980s there was enough financial means to set up a Catholic center in Greifensee in the Limi , the financial situation at the beginning of the 1970s was not yet given to build an actual parish church and ancillary rooms in Volketswil. That is why the parish of Uster resorted to the offer of the Catholic aid organization Fastenopfer for Volketswil to build an emergency church. The buildings, known as Fastenopfer churches, were designed by the architect Hanns Anton Brütsch. This type of emergency church was built 17 times in Switzerland between 1966 and 1977. Originally it was thought that a Fastenopfer church should only stand for a few years until enough money was available to build a proper parish church. In fact, only the St. Titus Church was dismantled again by the parish Heilig-Kreuz in Zurich-Altstetten after 5 years of use and rebuilt for the Free Evangelical Congregation in Wallisellen . Apart from two Fastenopfer churches, which have since been demolished, all the other 15 are still at the first location, including the St. Franziskus Church in Bassersdorf and the Holy Spirit Church in Wetzikon.
The Fastenopfer Church for Volketswil was ordered from Wey Elementbau AG in Villmergen , which had built most of the Fastenopfer Churches that had been realized, and its construction was modified in 1971 according to the specifications of the cantonal building insurance. The stairs to the singing gallery had to be made wider and plastered, and ventilation blades had to be installed. Fastenopfer named this variant of the New Type Church in 1973 , which was then also used in Bassersdorf. When it became clear at the beginning of the 1990s that the church in Volketswil had to be renovated and expanded, the parish assembly decided that the Fastenopferkirche should remain and be supplemented by a new building according to plans by the architect Bruno Demuth, which was carried out in 1993-1994 took place.
The parish of Brother Klaus, with its 4,912 members (as of 2017), is one of the larger Catholic parishes in the Canton of Zurich. It belongs together with the parish rectorate Johannes XXIII. Greifensee and St. Andreas Uster to the parish of Uster, which with 15,711 members (as of 2017) is the second largest Catholic parish in the canton of Zurich.
Building description
Church tower and exterior
The Brother Klaus church is located at Feldhofstrasse 25 in Volketswil near the shopping center and the newly built building of the political community. The Brother Klaus church was placed on the course of the road in a south-easterly direction.
The aim of the building type of a Fastenopfer church was to represent an inexpensive and functional emergency church for use in one place for some time. All components of this church could be dismantled and should be rebuilt at another location for further use without much effort. The church roof was pulled down at a 45-degree angle to the base of the church, so that side walls could be dispensed with. Until the renovation in 1994, the roof and the front sections of the church were clad with black Eternit , a roof turret offers space for a bell. In the southern part of the building is the church, in the northern part the first rooms of the parish for the parish office and for parish life. The structural specifications of the cantonal building insurance in Zurich meant that concrete beams were used instead of the originally planned wooden construction elements. During the renovation of the church in 1994, the exterior of the church was adapted (replacement of the corrugated Eternit plates and the plastic panes) and expanded with the addition of the chapel and the parish center.
Interior and artistic equipment
The church has two entrances to the church on the southern front. Under the organ gallery, the visitor enters the church, which is characterized by the tent-shaped roof structure. The benches for the church service congregation are grouped around the sanctuary, which is one step higher than the room for the congregation.
When Primo Lorenzetti received the order to redesign the interior of the church in 1994, the congregation wanted, for reasons of piety , that the wood of the first popular altar and the wood of the large wall cross should be used for the redesign. In central Switzerland , Primo Lorenzetti found the wood of a cherry tree in a carpenter's workshop in Sachseln , which had grown in the immediate vicinity of the birthplace of Brother Klaus , the patron of the church in Volketswil, in Flüeli-Ranft . Together with the wood used to furnish the church, cherry wood formed the starting material for today's liturgical furniture.
A substantial part of the oak wood from the previous altar is in the 12 table legs of the new popular altar, which refer to the 12 disciples . The equality as well as the differences between the disciples of Jesus are expressed by the fact that although all table legs have the same dimensions, each leg is designed differently. Together the legs of the altar support the table top, which was made from the wood of the cherry tree from the home of brother Klaus. A relic of St. Brother Klaus is embedded in the plate . This was located in Winterthur in the 1950s and has been the core of the altar plate since 1994. The meditation picture of brother Klaus, which Primo Lorenzetti created as a wooden inlay on the altar plate, refers to this . The vertical parts of the ambo are also made of the oak wood of the first altar, while the horizontal elements are made of cherry wood. The font shows the shape of a pyramid rotated 180 degrees . This conceals the baptismal font, which is covered by a cover plate during the other services, so that the baptismal font serves as a sideboard in Eucharistic celebrations . The candlestick for the Easter candle also shows the shape of the upturned pyramid. The pyramid shapes of the baptismal font and the Easter candlestick are designed by Primo Lorenzetti based on the model of the Cheops pyramid . The shape of the triangle can be found in different places in the church, for example in the roof structure of the church. Primo Lorenzetti also took up this space-defining form in the tabernacle , which is located on the choir wall. The tabernacle is made from the wood of the Flüeli-Ranft cherry tree. The front of the tabernacle shows a cross, on the left and right a cherub can be seen in the grain of the wood , which guard the Holy of Holies . The choir wall was designed by Primo Lorenzetti in such a way that a cross can be seen in the joints of the upper area, which bursts open the panels of the wall. Four colors can be seen in the joints that form the cross: From the earth to the center of the cross, there is red, which symbolizes geothermal heat and fire. From the sky to the center of the cross, blue can be seen, which stands for the sky, the atmosphere and the galaxy . From the right to the middle of the cross runs a green joint, which stands for nature. The joint from left to center is finally yellow, which refers to the light. The opening that arises from the cross symbolizes the entry of the divine into the earthly world through Jesus Christ . The triangular shape of the altar wall refers to the tent in which the Ark of the Covenant was kept when the people left Egypt. The triangle is thus a sign of God's being on the road with the church.
When the church was expanded to include the weekday chapel in 1994, Primo Lorenzetti took up the parish's concept of Mary in the design of the chapel. He invited the women of the community to paint their own pictures of the Virgin Mary on the wall of the chapel. The wall was then plastered and painted white. The table top of the altar in the weekday chapel and the cross on the wall are again made of the wood of the cherry tree from the home of Brother Klaus, the patron of the church. In the profile of the cross the body of Jesus Christ is indicated, the horizontal arms of the cross nestle against the curve of the wall and thus illustrate the sheltering character of love for God . Primo Lorenzetti suggested that the candle corner offer the possibility of lighting candles for the newborns of the community in addition to candles for the dead. The names of both the deceased and the newly baptized are recorded there.
From the spruce wood of the church's first wall cross, Primo Lorenzetti created an isosceles cross, which was installed in the foyer of the parish center, which was newly built in 1994. At the request of the Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop Peter Henrici at the time , Primo Lorenzetti designed another cross on the choir wall of the church behind the altar, the design of which takes up the vision of Brother Klaus from the Mercy Fountain: The arms of the isosceles cross are narrow and high from the center outwards, on the outside broad and deep. This symbolizes God's grace towards people. In the middle of this cross is a rock crystal from the canton of Uri. This crystal has the properties of a prism , which refracts the light into the color spectrum. Inserted in the cross behind the altar, the crystal refers to light as a symbol of God. Between this cross behind the altar and the cross in the pediment of the altar wall hangs a cloth in the respective liturgical color. The unused cloths are located behind the gable segment of the altar wall and can be lowered if necessary.
organ
In the organ of the church is an instrument which either of organ building consolation or Metzler comes. As a special feature, Manual II automatically couples when I / II and I / P are coupled.
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- Coupling: II / I, I / P
literature
- Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. Chur 1980.
- Catholic parish Uster (ed.): Festschrift inauguration of the parish center Brother Klaus Volketswil October 9, 1994. Uster 1994.
- State Archives of the Canton of Lucerne, PA 1202.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. P. 263.
- ^ Henri Truffer: Association of Roman Catholic Parishes of the City of Zurich. Zurich 1989, p. 192
- ^ Christian Renfer: Catholic Church Bülach. Pp. 4-5.
- ^ State Archives of the Canton of Lucerne, PA 1202.
- ^ State Archives of the Canton of Lucerne, PA 1202
- ↑ Catholic Church in the Canton of Zurich (Ed.): Annual Report 2017. p. 84.