Trinity Church (Bern)
The Dreifaltigkeitskirche Bern is a Roman Catholic basilica at Taubenstrasse 6 in Bern . The Trinity Church was built from 1896 to 1899 on the initiative of the theologian and art historian Jakob Stammler , who was active in Bern from 1876 to 1906 as a Catholic city pastor and then as bishop in the diocese of Basel . It was because of its importance as an excellent place of worship and piety ... , the architectural style and its furnishings on April 6, 1956 on behalf of Pope Pius XII. for minor basilica appointed.
prehistory
After all the churches in the old part of the canton were reformed after the Bern disputation in 1528 and the practice of Catholic services was forbidden (as, by the way, the other way around, also in Catholic places), there were no longer any Catholics in the Bern area. The few immigrant craftsmen and servants from the Old Believers had to secretly go to mass in neighboring cantons. The closest possibility from Bern was the Beatus Church in Sensebrücke , consecrated in 1602 . With the invasion of Napoleon's French troops in 1798, the Helvetic Republic arose and with it the right to free settlement and religious practice. As a result, on Easter 1798, the first Holy Mass for soldiers passing through took place in the chapel of the Burgerspital . When the Helvetic government moved its headquarters from Lucerne to Bern because of the threat from Austrian and Russian troops, the Catholic MPs asked for a room to practice their cult. For this they were assigned the choir of the Bern Minster, which was then still separated by the stone rood screen. The Friborg Franciscan Father Grégoire Girard was the first pastor to work until 1803 , and his ecumenical attitude contributed a lot to the reawakening and continued existence of Catholicism in Bern. After the end of the Helvetic Republic, religious freedom also ended. Only the Reformed Confession was permitted in the canton of Bern. The Bernese Reformed Congregation then allowed the few Catholics to share half of the French Church . Until 1848, with the introduction of the new federal constitution, the Catholic cult was tolerated with conditions under the strict supervision of the Protestant church council. After that, the free practice of religion was guaranteed throughout Switzerland and thus also in Bern. However, without its own parish, as had been granted to the Jura region, which had been part of the canton of Bern since 1815. In Bern, the parish remained legally as a private cooperative. In 1932 Anton Baud (1805–1867) was appointed pastor. During his tenure around 1850, the number of Catholics grew to around 1,500. The situation in the French Church was unsatisfactory and the need for a church of its own arose. In response to the building application from the church elders on March 22, 1852, after one and a half years the government gave permission to build a church for the exclusive use of the Catholic residents of the city of Bern . After six years of construction, the church of St. Peter and Paul was consecrated next to the Bern town hall on November 13, 1864. At the same time the connection of the old part of the canton, which previously belonged to the diocese of Lausanne, to the diocese of Basel was celebrated. The total construction cost of over 650,000 francs was due to contributions from Pope Pius IX. , the Federal Assembly, the community of residents and citizens, equal cantons and various foreign governments, as well as private donors. After Pastor Baud's death, Stephan Perroulaz from Freiburg took over the parish in 1866 . In the course of the Kulturkampf , the Church of Peter and Paul was handed over to the Christ Catholics in 1875 . Pastor Perroulaz was allowed to temporarily use the French church again with the remaining Catholics loyal to Rome after the loss of their church with the kind permission of the Reformed Münsterkirchgemeinde. After purchasing the "Gasthaus zur Krone" on Gerechtigkeitsgasse, a private person provided the newly founded Roman Catholic cooperative with rooms for an annual rent of 1,800 francs, where they could set up an emergency chapel. Pastor Stephan Perroulaz left the city of Bern in 1876, ill and weakened by the painful loss of his church and parsonage, and died two years later in Freiburg. His successor, Pastor Jakob Stammler, enlarged the chapel with space for around 200 people by including the atrium of the crown. This temporary solution lasted for 25 years until the end of the century and the construction of the new Trinity Church. When the previous owners sold the "Krone" in 1895, the premises were given notice at short notice. The former historical museum, which was later demolished, was rented for two years and a chapel was set up in it.
Building history
The new Code of Obligations of 1881 gave the Roman Catholic Cooperative the opportunity to purchase real estate itself. On August 5, 1883, the "Roman Catholic Congregation in Bern" was entered in the commercial register as a legal entity. The property for the future church on Taubenstrasse with 2473 m² could be acquired in 1889 at favorable conditions. The church building fund grew thanks to the initiative of Pastor Stammler, with larger donations from several Catholic cantons, Swiss monasteries, the domestic mission , the Grande Chartreuse , the Emperor of Austria and a lottery for gifts organized by women with proceeds of 45,000 francs. The design by Lucerne architect Heinrich Viktor von Segesser , who then also planned and carried out the construction with the collaboration of Bern architect Henry Berthold von Fischer , was selected from the competition, which included the construction of a new church with substructure, tower, rectory and Sigrist apartment . On March 29, 1896, the municipal assembly approved the plans and the building application of April 14, 1896 was approved by the municipal building authorities on July 19. Segesser's realized design of the church building is based on the Lombard Romanesque style . The main facade is inspired by the Church of San Zeno Maggiore in Verona .
When construction began at the end of July 1896, the contracts had to be awarded. Several Bern companies were significantly involved, such as the master builder, carpenter, roofer and plumber, the plastering and painting work, as well as the church windows. External companies were also commissioned for specialized requirements. Due to the Kulturkampf, the Bern quarries refused to deliver sandstone to the Roman Catholic community. Therefore, granite from Wassen and gneiss from the canton of Ticino was used for the foundation walls and the yellow Jura stone from Saint-Imier and Laufen, which alternates with yellow and red bricks, forms the facade structure.
The rectory and the Sigrist apartment could be moved into in May 1898. At this point the chapel (crypt) was finished and at the end of the year the church was also completed. On December 4, 1898, the pastor was able to bless the church and on June 18, 1899, on Trinity Sunday, Leonhard Haas, the bishop of Basel and Lugano, consecrated the new church of the Holy Trinity .
Exterior
The structure of the church is reminiscent of early Christian and Romanesque architecture. The two side aisles with pent roofs connect to the elevated central nave with its gable roof. The south-western gable wall ends with three apses on the choir side. The main facade on the northeast side corresponds with its three areas to the basilical division of the interior. Broad pilasters at the corners and narrower pillars that end in arched friezes at the ridge divide the facade into fields. The large wheel window with twelve spokes and a round central field dominates the porch. The groin vault of the portal porch rests on Jurassic limestone columns. Above the main portal is the coat of arms of the church as a sign of its elevation to the Basilica Minor. The main portal is normally closed, and visitors enter the church through the side entrances.
Interior and equipment
The wide area of the basilica, 43 m long and 23 m wide, creates a solemn calm with its colorful design through the murals and especially through the new painting on the apse. Ten monolithic columns and four panel-clad pilasters made of red lime from Verona ( Rosso Verona ) with capitals made of galvanic cast bronze , connected by arcade arches , support the nave wall with its triplet windows in the upper aisle . The central nave has a wooden, ornate coffered ceiling. The aisles have flat wooden ceilings. There are large murals on the two walls of the tall nave and between the upper windows. The gallery with the main organ, which was accessed by two spiral staircases in 1973, is supported by two pillars made of Laufen limestone. The central nave and the side aisles each end on the choir side in an apse.
Equipment until 1972
The original altars in the church in marble with ornaments of gilt bronze and enamel delivered the traditional house Armand-Calliat from Lyon , the pulpit on four marble pillars the company Schmidt & Schmidweber Dietikon (called Marmori ) and the three altars of the crypt in Brescia marble came by the sculptor Ermenogildo De Giorgi Peverada (1866–1900) from Loco TI . The wall cladding with two-tone marble panels in the choir area, as well as the parapet, which was also the choir screen and communion bench, were added later. The image program was developed according to Pastor Stammler's ideas in the Nazarenes' Silence . In 1903, Alois Balmer (1866–1933) painted a depiction of the enthroned Trinity in the dome of the central nave apse, accompanied by Mary and John the Baptist, with Saint Beatus, Ursus and Saint Vincent of Saragossa on the right. On the left, Saint Cecilia, Catherine of Alexandria and the diocese patroness Verena. During the renovation in 1972–1973, the fresco was replaced by white plaster. The unchanged paintings of the nave walls were painted by Franz Vettiger (1846–1919) from Uznach in 1906–1913 and after his death August Müller-Warth (1846–1943) from Warth TG completed the painting of the central nave in 1921–1922 .
Redesign from 1972
1972–1973, after the council of 1962–1965 , the church was structurally adapted to the new rules. The high altar with the side altars, the pulpit and the choir screen were expanded. In addition, an attempt was made to free them by removing the painting and the marble cladding in the apses and the side aisles in order to allow the colored windows to be visible again in all their beauty . The altar, ambo and the priestly seats were moved to the area of the first columns. In the empty choir there was now space for a small organ and the church choir.
Murals
The Last Judgment above the choir arch depicts the separation of the blessed from the damned. Between the spandrels of the arched windows on the left nave, the seven sacraments are themed in circular pictures. In the same pictures on the right it is the seven days of creation. The pictures between the windows show fourteen scenes from the Old Testament and twelve large pictures on the two walls under the windows show scenes from the life of Jesus. Church fathers and teachers are represented in another ten round pictures in the fields above the pillars. The painted ornamental bands were restored during the last cast redesign.
Redesign 2003–2004, choir and apses
The original decorations on the side aisle walls were removed in 1972; at the same time as the new painting on the choir, the Lucerne artist Jörg Niederberger brought the plinth and the ornaments in line with the existing and the new. The central apse in bright yellow and red tones does not refer to the original representation of God in Alois Balmer's fresco, in which red and blue clouds dissolve and break through the three-part structure of the ribbons and friezes. The ornaments are executed with a triangular stamp motif in different variants. The triangular motif is repeated in the high backrests of the new choir stalls, which are constructed from red-colored wooden panels and installed in the semicircle of the choir. In addition to the altar block and the ambo, which were created in 1973 by the sculptor Georg Malin , Georg Malin designed a baptismal font from the no longer used priestly seats in 2008. The left apse is painted as a Lady Chapel with a blue background and a starry sky. In front of it is a statue of the Madonna by Albert Wider (1910–1985) from 1954. The sacrament apse on the right is reddish-purple in color and also has stars as in the original version. The gilded bronze tabernacle also comes from Georg Malin.
Further furnishings include a Pietà in the entrance area , the figure of St. Brother Klaus on the left pillar and St. Anthony on the right . In memory of Jakob Stammler, the former pastor and later bishop, as well as the builder of the basilica, August Weckbecker from Munich designed an epitaph that was attached to the side of the right pillar while Stammler was still alive. On the left pillar is the papal document for the appointment of the basilica. Two round holy water stoups on twisted columns in red brecciated marble by Arzo and two simpler ones in light limestone stand on the columns under the gallery.
Stained glass
The glass paintings in the round windows of the aisles were made by Carl Reich , Bern, based on designs by Albin Schweri . They show saints and their vitae, beginning on the left with Karl Borromäus, Niklaus von Flüe, Ida and Verena, Beatus, Apostles Peter and Paul and Maria. The window above the sacristy door in the right aisle by Emil Reich depicts the Trinity in abstract forms. It follows the city saint Vincent of Saragossa, Urs and Viktor, Fridolin and Ulrich, Meinrad and Gallus and in the half-window Petrus Canisius. Franz Reich , Bern, designed and manufactured the glazing for the wheel window behind the organ . The windows in the apses were designed by Leo Steck in 1936 and executed by Louis Halter , Bern.
crypt
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The space is divided into three aisles by four pillars with connecting flat belt arches. The slightly retracted choir receives daylight through two windows. The original altars remained slightly adapted after the renovation in 1987. The colorless situation after the Purization of 1972 was corrected with the new wall painting. The pews from 1875 come from the emergency chapel in the crown , with them the crypt could be set up before the upper main church was completed. In 1987 the organ was also installed. An art installation by Susanne Krell called Baldachin has been hidden in the Kryptahof since 2016 .
Church organs
Main organ
Financed with a special tender, the new church received a pneumatic membrane shutter organ from Orgelbau Kuhn, Männedorf, with 26 registers on 2 manuals and pedal in 1899. In 1926 the previous organ was replaced with a pneumatic pocket organ with 38 registers on 3 manuals and a pedal. The Mathis organ of the Dreifaltigkeitskirche, completed in 1980, has 41 sounding stops on 3 manuals and a pedal .
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- Coupling : II / I, III / I, I / P, II / P
Choir organ
Between the left choir wall and the first column, an Italian-style organ was built in 2008 by Marco Fratti, Modena I, with 13 stops on one manual. The pedal is attached. The unusual note length of 12 'for the principal means an extension down to the Kontra-F (FF) in an 8-foot organ of Italian style.
Crypt organ
In 1987 Kuhn AG, Männedorf, built the new organ in the lower church with 10 sounding registers on 2 manuals and pedal.
Tower and bells
The height of the church tower attached to the facade is approximately 45 m. On its ground floor is the right side entrance of the church, the staircase to the basement of the rectory and the lower church. As with the church, the base area consists of embossed Aare granite stones from Wassen and Ticino gneiss. Above it rises the tower with a facade designed like a church up to a cornice. The bell storey above, with the triple staggered sound openings in the style of Romanesque churches, ends with blind arches on the gables leading to the square spire. The bells hang on ornate cast iron yokes and have traditional ornaments. The bells were made in 1908 by the H. Rüetschi Aarau foundry. (Beats: c ', es', f ', as', c ''). According to the foundry's list of bells from 1968, its total weight is 5,958 kg, of which the largest bell weighs 2,529 kg.
Rectory
Next to the tower is the old parsonage, which for a long time served as a residence for the pastor and his vicars. Today it houses offices and community rooms. It was built at the same time as the church and was built entirely with bricks, which structure the facade in two-tone bands.
Special
The architect Heinrich Viktor von Segesser built a church of the same type in Schmitten FR from 1886 to 1896 .
Area
In addition to the Holy Trinity Church, the former is at the Sulgeneckstrasse 7, patrician - Campagne La Prairie ( French for "Meadow / Pasture"), whose core dates from 1450 and was expanded 1734th This house with the associated land was acquired through various purchases between 1921 and 1931 through the commitment of Pastor Josef Emil Nünlist, Jakob Stammler's successor. The Catholic bookstore Voirol existed in the ground floor until 1972, before moving to Rathausgasse. The acquired property also included the journeyman's house , which served the Catholic journeyman's association in Bern as its home until the major renovation . The retired pastor Emil Nünlist was able to spend his old age in the prairie. When the parish house was also to be demolished on the prairie area as part of the planned large-scale development from 1972 to 1973, young people protested against the project and thus achieved a new plan with the preservation of the prairie and the surrounding park. Today it is a parish house with an open lunch table "for young and old, freaky and single people, women and men, the sick and the high-spirited", which was awarded the city of Bern's social prize in 1998 and 2012. Various parish rooms were set up in the new perimeter development and the most important building in the middle of the prairie park is the large parish hall, called Rotonda , built underground.
Pastor at the Trinity Church
- 1876 to 1906 Jakob Stammler
- 1906 to 1944 Josef Emil Nünlist
- 1944 to 1950 Ernst Simonett (1886–1981)
- 1950 to 1983 Johann Stalder (1917–1988)
- 1983 to 1999 Franz Kuhn (* 1932)
- 2001 to 2016 Gregor Tolusso (* 1965)
- since 2016 Christian Schaller (* 1963)
See also
- List of Roman Catholic churches in the canton of Bern
- List of cultural assets in Bern in District III, Mattenhof-Weissenbühl
- Catholic Church in the Canton of Bern
literature
- Angelika Bösch et al .: Catholic Bern from 1799 to 1999: A stopover . Roman Catholic Church Community of Bern and Surroundings, Bern 1999, p. 161 .
- Jakob Stammler: History of the Roman Catholic community in Bern . Union book and art print shop, Solothurn 1901.
- Roman Catholic parish, rectory of the Trinity Church [Bern] (Ed.): 150 years of the Roman Catholic parish in Bern; 50 years of the Trinity Church: Jubilee publication . Parish office of the Trinity Church, Bern 1949.
- Folco Galli, Christian Rümelin: Swiss Art Guide GSK. Volume 503: The Trinity Church in Bern. Bern 1992, ISBN 3-85782-503-0 .
- Andreas Vogel, Christian Rümelin, Folco Galli: The Trinity Church in Bern (= Swiss Art Guide. No. 889, series 89). Ed. Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 2010, ISBN 978-3-85782-889-8 .
- Toni Labhart, Konrad Zehnder: Stones Berns, excursion guide. Verlag Haupt, Bern 2018, ISBN 978-3-258-08064-2 , pp. 17-19.
Web links
- Website of the Roman Catholic Parish Trinity Bern
- Website Mathis Orgelbau
- Input by Anton Baud
- Restoration 2003–2008 Website of Strasser architects. Retrieved July 15, 2019
- Choral painting, website of Jörg Niederberger Retrieved on July 17, 2019
- Canopy in the Hidden Website by Susanne Krell. Retrieved July 15, 2019
Individual evidence
- ^ Emil Nünlist: The Catholic Church in the Bern area, on the history of the parishes of the Dean's office in Bern . Self-published by the author, Bern 1941, p. 10 .
- ↑ Entry by Anton Baud PDF 3 MB
- ↑ Ernst Simonett, Parish Office of the Trinity Church (Bern): 150 years of Catholic Bern, 50 years of the Trinity Church . Parish office of the Trinity Church, Bern 1949, p. 69-75 .
- ↑ 150 Years of Domestic Mission, accessed July 14, 2019.
- ↑ Josef Emil Nünlist : The Catholic Church in the Bern area, on the history of the parishes of the dean's office in Bern . Self-published by the author, Bern 1941, p. 14 .
- ↑ Ernst Simonett, Parish Office of the Trinity Church (Bern): 150 years of Catholic Bern, 50 years of the Trinity Church . Parish office of the Trinity Church, Bern 1949, p. 75-79 .
- ^ Toni Labhart, Konrad Zehnder: Stones Berns . 1st edition 2018. Haupt Bern, Bern 2018, ISBN 978-3-258-08064-2 , pp. 17-19 . over the rock.
- ↑ Ernst Simonett, Parish Office of the Trinity Church (Bern): 150 years of Catholic Bern, 50 years of the Trinity Church . Parish office of the Trinity Church, Bern 1949, p. 77 .
- ^ Toni Labhart, Konrad Zehnder: Stones Berns . 1st edition 2018. Haupt Bern, Bern 2018, ISBN 978-3-258-08064-2 , pp. 17-19 (above the pillars).
- ↑ Supplier of the electroplated bronze capital of the Geislingen metal goods factory
- ↑ quote from the building report of 12 January 1974 parish Journal
- ^ Predecessor organ from 1926 in the organ directory of Switzerland accessed June 1, 2019.
- ↑ Main organ in the organ directory of Switzerland accessed June 1, 2019.
- ↑ Choir organ in the organ directory of Switzerland accessed June 1, 2019
- ↑ choir organ on the website Orgues & Vitraux in French abgerufen27. September 2019
- ↑ Crypt organ in the organ directory of Switzerland accessed June 1, 2019
- ↑ Ringing on Youtube recorded by Resurrection Bell.
- ^ Parish Schmitten: Parish church archive link ( Memento from March 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Social award of the city of Bern for La Prairie PDF 130 kB.
Coordinates: 46 ° 56 ′ 43 " N , 7 ° 26 ′ 22" E ; CH1903: 600058 / 199340