Heart of Jesus (Buchs SG)

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Church Herz Jesu Buchs SG
View from the east
Entrance to the church portal
Exterior detail of the Way of the Cross

The Church of the Heart of Jesus is the Roman Catholic parish church of Buchs SG in the canton of St. Gallen . It was built according to plans by the architect Justus Dahinden in the years 1964–1965.

history

prehistory

The region around today's Buchs, the Upper St. Gallen Rhine Valley , has always been a border region through which important trade routes also passed. The first Christianization of the region probably took place in the late period of the Roman Empire . There are neither Christian grave finds nor written records in the region . In the early 7th century, St. Columban of Luxeuil and his companion, St. Gallus , came across the upper Lake of Zurich to Lake Constance and from there began to Christianize the population. After Columban moved on, Gallus was left alone. In 612 he followed the course of the Steinach and settled near the Mühleggschlucht. There he built a hermitage , so that St. Gallus is considered the founder of the city of St. Gallen that would later develop there .

Around the year 612 Gallus visited the deacon Johannes, who lives in Grabs , which is why today's meeting center in Grabs is dedicated to St. Gallus. The document that reports on Gallus' visit to Johannes, whereby Grabs is considered the oldest documented parish in the region of today's diocese of St. Gallen. When a few years later Gallus was proposed for the office of Bishop of Constance and he refused this office, he proposed instead the deacon John from Grabs, who was then elected as Johann I as Bishop of Constance in 615. In 766, the Chur bishop Tello bequeathed the church of Grabs to the Disentis monastery , while he bequeathed the town of Grabs to the St. Gallen monastery . This shows that the region was also in the 8th century in the area of ​​influence of two regions.

On January 24, 949, Emperor Otto I donated the church of Grabs and land to the Einsiedeln monastery . On the one hand the king did this to do something for the salvation of his soul , on the other hand he wanted to support the young monastery of Einsiedeln with this donation instead of further strengthening the then already influential St. Gallen monastery. In 979 the church of Grabs was consecrated to St. Bartholomew and in 992 Emperor Otto III confirmed it . once again the donation of Grabs by his grandfather Otto I to the Einsiedeln monastery.

At the time of the Reformation , Buchs, Grabs, Sevelen SG and the surrounding Land v. a. ecclesiastically in the sphere of influence of the diocese of Chur. Around 1520 there was a pastor and a vicar in Gams SG and Wartau, a pastor in Buchs and Sevelen, a pastor and a vicar in Grabs, and a chaplain each in Werdenberg SG and Wildhaus SG . Legally, however, Buchs, Grabs and Sevelen belonged to the county of Werdenberg , which was sold to the canton of Glarus in 1517 by the barons of Hewen Werdenberg . Since the people of Glarus could not agree during the Reformation whether they wanted to remain Catholic themselves or to be reformed, the Glarus (and Schwyzers ) appointed a Catholic Vogt for each of the County of Uznach , while Glarus had just one for the County of Werdenberg reformed. So it came about that the Glarner Landvogt Jost Tschudi introduced the Reformation in the county of Werdenberg in 1526, which from then on the practice of the Catholic faith was forbidden. The invasion of the Napoleonic troops into the area of ​​the Old Confederation led to the establishment of the Helvetic Republic in 1798 ; the old rulership rights were revoked and the villages of the county of Werdenberg were added to the canton of Linth . After the fall of the Helvetic Republic, Buchs, Grabs, Sevelen and Werdenberg became part of the canton of St. Gallen in 1803.

Development of the parish of Buchs

In 1850 22 of the 2015 inhabitants of Buchs were Catholic, while only 8 of the 3272 inhabitants of Grabs were Catholic. At the time, these few Catholics were largely left to their own devices. They actually belonged to the Catholic parish of Gams, which remained Catholic after the Reformation because it belonged to the Gaster region. But the pastors of Gams were often only asked for their services by the few Catholics of Buchs at baptisms , weddings and funerals . On the other hand, they attended the Sunday service more in Schaan, on the other side of the Rhine , but closer . From 1890, the pastoral care of the increasingly numerous Catholics of Buchs and Grabs was intensified by the vicar of the parish of Gams. On April 6, 1890, the first mass after the Reformation took place in Buchs, in the Hotel Rätia . On June 21, 1894, a Catholic mission station was founded in Buchs , which in 1895 was able to acquire the area for the construction of the neo-Gothic church built in 1896–1897 . On November 11, 1898, the Bishop of St. Gallen , Augustin Egger , appointed Buchs to be an independent parish. The first pastor of Buchs was Johann Künzle , who later became known as the herb pastor . He worked in Buchs until 1907 before he became pastor of Herisau .

In 1945 the Catholics of Buchs founded their Catholic parish. The population growth after the Second World War meant that the space in the aging Herz-Jesu-Kirche became too small. In the early 1960s, three services were held every Sunday in the 240-seat church; Up to 320 people took part in one of these services. Therefore the building of a new church became inevitable. On August 18, 1961, a building commission was elected, which in November 1961 commissioned the Zurich architect Justus Dahinden to draw up a preliminary study for the construction of the new church. On July 1, 1963, the parish approved the finalized project so that the preparatory work could begin. On August 23, 1964, the foundation stone was laid by Bishop Joseph Hasler . The diocesan bishop consecrated the completed church on December 19, 1965 . Like the previous building, the new building also received the patronage of the Sacred Heart of Jesus . In 1991 and 1998 the artist Monika Foser-Mahlknecht created the Sacred Heart Window to complement the original furnishings of the church.

Today the parish Buchs-Grabs belongs to the pastoral care unit Werdenberg, which includes the parishes of Wartau, Sevelen, Buchs-Grabs, Gams and Sennwald . The pastoral care unit is part of the Sargans deanery .

Development of pastoral care in Grabs

Pastoral care for the Catholics of Grabs was divided between the parish of Gams (north of the village stream) and the parish of Buchs (south of the stream) until 1961. In 1961 the Catholics of Gams then founded a chapel cooperative with the aim of building their own house of worship. This lasted until 1984. From 1965 catholic services were celebrated in the hospital chapel of Grabs. 1977 Grabs was then officially assigned to Buchs, so that the Buchs-Grabs parish was formed. In 1985 the St. Gallus meeting center was inaugurated in Grabs.

Bell tower

Building description

Church tower and exterior

The Church of the Heart of Jesus is located southwest of the center of Buchs on Pfrundgutstrasse , a quiet neighborhood street , but is set back from it. From a distance the church tower draws attention to the location of the church. Both the tower and the church building itself are made of cubic shapes, some of which are covered with sheet copper . This creates a double contrast in material and color between the copper-covered elements and the other volumes, which were designed as exposed concrete .

Under the church tower you get to a covered ramp that runs along a concrete wall. Behind this wall, the lower parsonage is built onto the church tower . If you walk along the wall, the ramp leads past the Way of the Cross to the bronze entrance portal of the church. With this idea that the way to the church leads under the church tower over a ramp along a straight wall, on which the Way of the Cross is already attached outside the church, Justus Dahinden takes up a concept that architect Walter Moser had already introduced to his church a few years earlier St. Christophorus Wangen applied to the Aare . In contrast to the Moser church, the ramp in Buchs is covered with a flat roof. The artist Albert Wider from Widnau furnished the Way of the Cross with life-size, expressive bronze figures. As a contrast to the human figures, cubic elements protrude from the concrete wall, suggesting a staffage and v. a. also form the cross of Jesus at the respective stations of the cross. The way of the cross gets an additional dynamic because the ramp rises towards the church. From the entrance portal of the church you can also get into the parish center, which is built under the church.

The church tower contains a five-part bell from the Passau company Rudolf Perner , which was cast on May 21, 1965. On August 20, 1965, the bells arrived in Buchs and, after their consecration, were raised in the church tower. The bell of the Catholic Church in Buchs is the largest Perner bell in Switzerland. The second bell is a specialty: it was designed as a durg bell, which the Swiss bell founders could not master at that time. The volume of the bells is increased by the acoustics of the tower, but also by the partly open suspension and the low height, especially of the large bells.

number Weight Chime dedication inscription
1 3452 kg B ° Heart of jesus "For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd and guide them to the water sources of life." (Rev 7:17)
2 1800 kg of Mother of God «He has looked upon his lowly maid with grace. See, from now on all generations will call me blessed. " (Lk 1, 48)
3 1012 kg f St. Joseph "What you do in word and work, do everything in the name of the Lord." (Col 3, 17)
4th 588 kg as Holy Brother Klaus "This is how we want to strive for that which serves for peace and mutual edification." (Rom 14.17)
5 403 kg b Holy Guardian Angel "See, I am sending my angel to go before you, to guard you on the way and to lead you to the place that I have prepared." (Ex 23, 20)
inside view
View to the organ gallery

Interior and artistic equipment

A simple, broad bronze portal leads into the interior of the church. This is built on a square floor plan and designed around the corner . Justus Dahinden designed the room from clear, cubic forms, some of which are in the style of béton brut , and some of which are clad with wooden strips. Horizontal lines lend the space width, vertical lines direct the view upwards, in the direction of transcendence . The daylight falls indirectly into the room through windows, so that it changes the mood of the room depending on the time of day and weather. According to Justus Dahinden, this light should express the grace of God, which, like daylight, flows vertically down to the believers.

After his two Zurich churches St. Paulus Dielsdorf and Maria Krönung Zurich-Witikon , Dahinden has now created his third sacred building in Buchs , which is also the first that he designed from the beginning as a post-conciliar church in accordance with the liturgy constitution of the Second Vatican Council : the faithful flock in a semicircle around the raised by a few steps sanctuary . The popular altar is flanked by the ambo , the baptismal font is no longer set up in a separate baptistery at the church entrance , but in the middle near the altar, which spatially emphasizes the acceptance of a baptized person into the community of believers ( communion idea ). On the southern side of the room, a working day chapel is built in, somewhat set off. The bronze tabernacle is placed on the choir wall both near the altar of the weekday chapel and near the people's altar in the main room . Like all other sculptural elements, this one was created by Albert Wider . The design of the tabernacle housing is reminiscent of the Ark of the Covenant , but also contains the Christ sign and the letters Alpha and Omega , which recall the word of Jesus: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." (Rev 22, 13)

Albert Wider created a Madonna Enthroned larger than life , which, like the Child Jesus on her lap, opened her hands in prayer . The flowing robe enlivens the large-scale bronze sculpture, above, as in the Annunciation of the Lord, a dove of the Holy Spirit is depicted. The most striking work of art in the church is a larger than life figure of Brother Klaus. He kneels and sees God in a vision. The saint's posture and facial expression express astonishment and humility . For the 100th anniversary of the parish of Buchs, Monika Foser-Mahlknecht created the large glass window on the back wall of the church in 1998. Round shapes, which stand in contrast to the formal language of the architecture in the church, indicate a system of roots and branches that seem to come to life due to the daylight.

Mathis organ from 1969

organ

The Mathis Orgelbau company built the organ for the newly built Herz Jesu Church in 1969 . It is an instrument with 21 registers on 2 manuals and pedal .

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
Principal 8th'
Coupling flute 8th'
octave 4 ′
Gemshorn 4 ′
Sesquialter 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ + 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
Night horn 2 ′
Mixture III-IV 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Dulcian 16 ′
II Swell C – g 3
Dumped 8th'
Principal 4 ′
Reed flute 4 ′
octave 2 ′
Larigot 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Scharff III – IV 2 ⁄ 3 ′
Vox humana 8th'
Pedal C – f 1
Sub bass 16 ′
octave 8th'
Pommer 8th'
Choral bass 4 ′
Rauschpfeife 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
trombone 8th'

Monument protection

Besides the Gasthaus Traube , the Catholic Church Heilig Kreuz is the only object in Buchs SG that is included on the list of cultural assets of the canton of St. Gallen (category B).

literature

  • Catholic parish Buchs-Grabs (Ed.): 100 years of the Catholic parish Buchs-Grabs. Book 1998.
  • Erich Guntli: God has a heart for us humans. The Herz-Jesu-Kirche Buchs SG. Lindenberg 2006.

Web links

Commons : Herz Jesu (Buchs SG)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Markus Gasser: Christianity in our region at the time of Gallus. In: Katholische Kirchgemeinde Buchs-Grabs (Hrsg.): 100 years of the Catholic parish Buchs-Grabs. P. 4.
  2. ↑ Markus Gasser: Christianity in our region at the time of Gallus. In: Katholische Kirchgemeinde Buchs-Grabs (Hrsg.): 100 years of the Catholic parish Buchs-Grabs. P. 4.
  3. ↑ Markus Gasser: Grabs and its relationship to Einsiedeln. In: Katholische Kirchgemeinde Buchs-Grabs (Hrsg.): 100 years of the Catholic parish Buchs-Grabs. Pp. 6-8.
  4. ↑ Markus Gasser: The Reformation. In: Katholische Kirchgemeinde Buchs-Grabs (Hrsg.): 100 years of the Catholic parish Buchs-Grabs. Page ?.
  5. ↑ Markus Gasser: Which denomination in which church? In: Katholische Kirchgemeinde Buchs-Grabs (Hrsg.): 100 years of the Catholic parish Buchs-Grabs. P. 13.
  6. ↑ Markus Gasser: The occupation by the French. In: Katholische Kirchgemeinde Buchs-Grabs (Hrsg.): 100 years of the Catholic parish Buchs-Grabs. Pp. 14-15.
  7. ↑ Katholische Kirchgemeinde Buchs-Grabs (Ed.): 100 Years of the Catholic Parish Buchs-Grabs. P. 3.
  8. ↑ Markus Gasser: The Catholic parish of Buchs. In: Katholische Kirchgemeinde Buchs-Grabs (Hrsg.): 100 years of the Catholic parish Buchs-Grabs. P. 16.
  9. ↑ Othmar Sidler: Departure . In: Katholische Kirchgemeinde Buchs-Grabs (Hrsg.): 100 years of the Catholic parish Buchs-Grabs. Pp. 45-49.
  10. ↑ Erich Guntli: 100 years of the parish Buchs-Grabs. In: Katholische Kirchgemeinde Buchs-Grabs (Hrsg.): 100 years of the Catholic parish Buchs-Grabs. P. 42.
  11. ↑ Erich Guntli: God has a heart for us humans. The Herz-Jesu-Kirche Buchs SG. P. 44.
  12. ↑ Pastoral care unit. Website of the Catholic parish of Buchs SG. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  13. ↑ Katholische Kirchgemeinde Buchs-Grabs (Ed.): 100 Years of the Catholic Parish Buchs-Grabs. P. 3.
  14. ↑ Markus Gasser: The Catholic parish of Buchs . In: Katholische Kirchgemeinde Buchs-Grabs (Hrsg.): 100 years of the Catholic parish Buchs-Grabs. Pp. 16-20.
  15. ↑ Erich Guntli: 100 years of the parish Buchs-Grabs. In: Katholische Kirchgemeinde Buchs-Grabs (Hrsg.): 100 years of the Catholic parish Buchs-Grabs. P. 37.
  16. ↑ Othmar Sidler: Departure. In: Katholische Kirchgemeinde Buchs-Grabs (Hrsg.): 100 years of the Catholic parish Buchs-Grabs. P. 49.
  17. ↑ Information from YouTube. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  18. ↑ Erich Guntli: Faith cast in stone. In: Forum Werdenberg 6/2015 . Werdenberg 2015.
  19. ↑ Erich Guntli: God has a heart for us humans. The Herz-Jesu-Kirche Buchs SG. Pp. 31-42.
  20. ↑ Erich Guntli: Faith cast in stone. In: Forum Werdenberg 6/2015. Werdenberg 2015.
  21. ↑ Erich Guntli: God has a heart for us humans. The Herz-Jesu-Kirche Buchs SG. P. 44.
  22. ^ Catholic Church in Buchs SG. Organ directory Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  23. ↑ List of Swiss cultural assets.