Jesuit Church (Solothurn)

South view of the Jesuit Church

North facade of the Jesuit Church

Interior view towards the organ gallery

The Jesuit Church Solothurn is a Jesuit church in the old town of Solothurn , Switzerland . It was probably built between 1680 and 1689 according to plans by the Jesuit Heinrich Mayer .

Furnishing

The main facade is crowned by a statue of the Virgin Mary made of Solothurn limestone by Johann Peter Frölicher. In the interior there is the high altar from 1704, which shows a picture of the Assumption of Mary by Franz Carl Stauder , other large-format pictures by the Solothurn painter Wolfgang Aeby and side altars and the like. a. by Johann Kaspar Sing , Christoph Brack and Johann Andreas Wolff . The organ is the only surviving work by Franz Joseph Otter (1761–1807).

history

In 1646, the aristocratic Grand Council called the Jesuits to Solothurn. The motif for this was v. a. counter-reformation efforts. In the same year a provisional college was opened (municipal high school ), which replaced a collegiate school dating back to the Middle Ages.

The construction of the new college with church (the building of today's city theater was also part of it) was mainly financially supported by the French royal family, whose ambassador (ambassador) resided in Solothurn, as well as by Solothurn patriciate families. The church was consecrated in 1689.

In 1773 Pope Clement XIV dissolved the Jesuit order, which was skeptical of the absolutist monarchies on certain points, under pressure from Western European royal houses. The Grand Council of Solothurn wanted to continue the college, and services continued to be held in the church (henceforth without the Jesuits). 1791–1794 the organ was built on the second gallery. After the occupation of Switzerland by French revolutionary troops in 1798 and the establishment of the centralized-republican form of government of the Helvetic Republic , v. a. The Solothurn citizen Josef Lüthy and Jerome Vogelsang successfully to ensure that the school and church were not "national property", but to the Munizipalgemeinde ( municipality passed over) Solothurn.

After the liberal revolution, the spiritual "Professoren Konvikt" resp. In fact, the college was dissolved and replaced by a secular canton school . What remained was a seminary as well as the church use.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the building began to fall into disrepair, which also affected the church. Nobody was ready or able to inject enough money for structural maintenance. The climax of the decline was the offer by a building consortium in 1927 to buy and tear down the church - which is now a listed building - and to build commercial buildings in its place. For security reasons, access to the church was subsequently blocked for around 30 years. As part of "emergency work" (a term that did not apply to the church, but to the employment program created due to the economic crisis), the facade of the church was renovated in 1936 with the help of federal subsidies.

In 1949 a gradual interior restoration, also with a federal contribution, was decided and in 1952 the church was donated from the residents to a foundation of the parish. The college building served from then on for the elementary school. The Solothurn Stone Museum has been located in the lapidarium of the Jesuit Church since 1997 .

organ

View of the cleared organ prospect

The organ was built between 1791 and 1794 by the organ builder Franz Joseph Otter (Aedermannsdorf), and was last restored in 2012 by Orgelbau Kuhn . The instrument has 22 registers on two manuals and a pedal . Organ concerts are held regularly in summer (www.orgelkonzertesolothurn.com).

Hauptwerk C – d ³
	Bourdon	16 ′
	Principal	8th'
	Copel	8th'
	Praestant	4 ′
	Flauto	4 ′
	Nazard	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
	Octav	2 ′
	Mixture III	1'
	Cymbal III	² ⁄ ₃ ′
	Cornet V	8th'
	Tromba	8th'

II Rückpositiv C – d ³
	Copel	8th'
	Salicional	8th'
	Praestant	4 ′
	Flauto	4 ′
	Tertian II	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
	Flageolet	2 ′
	Larigot	1 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
	Crummhorn	8th'
	Tremulant
	Rossignol

Pedal C – d ¹
	Sub bass	16 ′
	Octave bass	8th'
	Bombard	16 ′

Coupling : II / I (manual slide coupling), I / P

literature

Benno Schubiger: The Jesuit Church in Solothurn. History, construction and equipment of the former college church and the Jesuit college. Solothurn 1987, ISBN 3-85962076-2 .
Benno Schubiger: Jesuit Church in Solothurn. ( Swiss Art Guide , No. 366). Ed. Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 2003, ISBN 978-3-85782-366-4 .
Max Gressly: On the legal history of the Jesuit Church Solothurn. In: Yearbook for Solothurn History. Vol. 49 (1976). Pp. 101-142 ( doi : 10.5169 / seals-324605 ).