First Church of Christ, scientist (Basel)

Front view with entrance area

Side view

Interior, view of the pulpit and organ gallery

The First Church of Christ, Scientist at Picassoplatz in Basel is a cult building of the Christian Science religious community that was inaugurated in 1936 . The architect Otto Rudolf Salvisberg was entrusted with the construction . The building is considered to be an example of 20th century modernism in Switzerland and is listed in the list of monuments. It has not been used by Christian Science since 2016, but is now owned by the Canton of Basel-Stadt and is being converted for use by the Basel Symphony Orchestra (rehearsal room and offices for the office).

Architecture and equipment

The building is located inside a square of houses. The trapezoidal hall, the side walls of which converge towards the pulpit, is preceded by a spacious entrance hall with ancillary rooms. The materialization of the hall is kept sober with a filigree wooden ceiling and plastered walls. The side walls are divided by a series of narrow, tall windows. Seen from the lectern, the church interior rises towards the entrance hall.

The organ gallery is located above the pulpit, on the opposite side there is a gallery on which the parishioners could sit. The church had a total of 800 seats. Above the entrance hall was the Sunday school hall with its impressive glass front.

organ

Detail in the organ case

The organ building company Kuhn from Männedorf built an organ with three manuals and a pedal with a total of 26 registers in 1936 ; the work bears the opus number 780. The performance and stop action is electric. The pipework is set up on a gallery above the lectern and stands on pocket drawers, the gaming table is in the church interior in a recess to the right of the lectern. The disposition is as follows:

I Manual C– Lovely covered 16 ′ Reed flute 8th' Flautino 8th' Salicional 8th' Vox angelica 8th' Suavial 4 ′ Night horn 4 ′ Plein Jeu V-VI Trumpet 8th' shawm 4 ′ tremolo

II Manual C– Dumped 8th' Gemshorn 4 ′ recorder 4 ′ Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Sesquialter II Forest flute 2 ′ Third flute 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ English horn 8th'

III Manual C– Principal 8th' Hollow flute 8th' Gemshorn 8th' Octav 4 ′ Octav 2 ′ mixture 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′

Pedal C– Principal bass 16 ′ Sub bass 16 ′ Echo bass 16 ′ Flute bass 8th' Dacked bass 8th' Choral bass 4 ′ bassoon 16 ′

• Coupling : II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
• Transmissions : Shawm 4 ′ from III, trumpet 8 ′ from III, English horn 8 ′ from II, bassoon 16 ′ from P

New use since 2018

Similar to the cult buildings in Zurich and Berne, which were converted into a rehearsal room for the Philharmonia Zurich and the “Yehudi Menuhin Forum Berne”, the Basel Christian Science Community sought to use the building for cultural purposes and make it smaller community to use other rooms. On September 1, 2016, the property was acquired by the Canton of Basel-Stadt for 5.86 million Swiss francs with the aim of creating a rehearsal room for the Basel Symphony Orchestra in the church and accommodating the orchestra's office on the upper floor. The conversion project is being developed in close cooperation with the monument preservation authorities. The opening is planned for 2020.

Web links

Commons : First Church of Christ, Wissenschafter (Basel)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Information from the Basel-Stadt structural engineering department on the renovation (with picture gallery)
• Information on the organ website of Orgelbau Kuhn AG

Coordinates: 47 ° 33 '13.1 "  N , 7 ° 35' 44.2"  E ; CH1903:  611 816  /  267,004