English Church (Arosa)

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English church around 1920

The English Church (St. Luke's Church) in Arosa was an Anglican church in the Swiss canton of Graubünden . From 1908 to 1985 it stood between the train station and the Arosa post office on the corner of Seeblickstrasse / Poststrasse / Oberseeplatz.

history

While the first summer guests in the up-and-coming spa town of Arosa were almost exclusively Swiss around 1880 , the holiday structure in winter was quite international from the start. Towards the end of the 1890s, the number of guests from Great Britain , who were the first to practice winter sports, increased sharply and rapidly. First they held their services in the Grand Hotel (today: Robinson Club Arosa ), and later in a school. Soon there was a need for an Anglican church of their own. In 1905, an initiative committee made up of locals and those temporarily present was formed to build an English chapel, which secured a centrally located building site on the Obersee . A second committee took care of donations for church building from 1907 in England. Construction began in the same year and was completed in 1908, a year after the Catholic Church on the Hubelsee and before the new Arosa village church from 1909, which replaced the Bergkirchli in its function as the main Protestant church. The construction costs amounted to around CHF 20,000. The church was owned by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in London .

use

The church was used regularly for church services during the heyday of English tourism in Arosa until World War II . In the early days there was also an Anglican pastor on site; For example, in 1917 the pastor of the English parish, Reverend EW Moberly, resident English Caplain, stayed at the Hotel Valsana all year round .

Discussions about the preservation of the building

Property «Il Cural» with church bell

When the English guests were increasingly absent from the 1950s, the English church was gradually no longer used as intended. Over time, discussions about their further use arose. In 1981 the community of Arosa decided to purchase the church and to build an administration building in its place. Since the building was in a prime location in a construction zone with a very high utilization rate, other parties reported around 1984, such as the nearby Posthotel, the Kurverein Arosa (today: Arosa Tourismus ), the AG Aroser Verkehrsbetriebe (AVB) (today: Arosa Bergbahnen ) or the retail chain «Usego» expresses interest in a purchase. The municipality of Arosa offered CHF 500,000 for the property valued at CHF 2.4 million. The English owner was willing to help the community of Arosa with the purchase price if they agreed to keep the building as a church. In a written statement, the Cantonal Monument Preservation of Graubünden stated that the church was worth protecting and preserving: «... To preserve the English church, local political forces in particular should be able to be deployed. All Arosa people are addressed, because if the church is demolished, one of the few witnesses of the beginning of Arosa's tourism will disappear. ... »

Sale and demolition of the church

Notwithstanding these objections and concerns, the English Church was sold to Guido Lindemann in July 1984 . He had the church completely demolished in 1985 and built a modern office building in its place. The original bell of the English Church above the main entrance is a reminder of the historically significant location.

Varia

Knitted church bell in winter 2013/14

For the winter of 2013/14, a large number of public objects were knitted in Arosa as part of a private knitting graffiti campaign, including the bell of the English Church.

swell

  • Hans Danuser : Arosa - as it was then (1979–1995) , vol. 6, self-published by Danuser, Arosa 2002, pp. 49, 70, 86 f.
  • Hans Danuser: Arosa - as it was then (1907–1928) , vol. 2, self-published by Danuser, Arosa 1998, p. 9, 131.
  • Hans Danuser: Arosa - as it was then (1850–1907) , vol. 1, self-published by Danuser, Arosa 1997, p. 179.
  • Fritz Maron: From mountain farming village to world health resort Arosa , Verlag F. Schuler, Chur 1934, p. 264.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Danuser: Arosa - as it was then (1907-1928) , Vol. 2, self-published by Danuser, Arosa 1998, p. 131.
  2. ↑ Hans Danuser: Arosa - as it was then (1979–1995) , vol. 6, self-published by Danuser, Arosa 2002, p. 87.
  3. ↑ Wool graffiti in Arosa: Schick in Strick. In: www.spiegel.de. May 13, 2014, accessed June 1, 2014 .

Coordinates: 46 ° 46 ′ 56 "  N , 9 ° 40 ′ 46.4"  E ; CH1903:  771,106  /  183,670