Hindelbank Church

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Hindelbank Church

The Hindelbank Church is the Reformed village church of Hindelbank and the neighboring village of Bäriswil , Canton Bern . It was built from 1513 to 1515 in place of an older church in the late Gothic style. After the fire in 1911, it was rebuilt largely true to the original in its current form. The old church was considered valuable because of its grave monuments and glass paintings.

history

Hindelbank belonged to the diocese of Constance in the 14th century with the dean's office in Burgdorf . A church in Hindelbank is documented for the first time in 1391, when Schultheiss Werner Münzer made gifts in his will on February 18, 1391 and mentioned the church: In addition, when I will die soon, that mine drü mansmeder ze Underbergen the kilchmeyer ze Hindelwanch deal for the same kilchen for solidly own inside and really care about it ze begande min jarzit and miner vorern on minen jarzitlichen day the next owners of the church set, also called Kollatur , were Cunzmann and Hänslin von Ergöw, his sister's grandson. Conrad von Ergöw, Ritter and Schultheiss von Burgdorf had to sell his property from 1466 due to financial difficulties. The church fee from Hindelbank went to Rudolf von Scharnachtal for £ 300 in 1505 , the Twing to Hindelbank went through various hands to the von Erlach family . In 1720 Hieronymus von Erlach acquired all parts of the rule. The right of patronage remained with the von Scharnachthal family until 1552 , after which Albrecht von Erlach acquired it.

Under Hans Beat von Scharnachtal as a collator and Johann von Erlach as a secular lord, the construction of a new church began around 1515 and it was furnished with valuable glass paintings. The Reformation in 1528 brought some unrest , but left the stained glass unmolested. With the nationalization of church property after 1798, the rights of the Lords of Erlach to the church set were revoked. The church remained in this form until the fire in 1911.

Village fire

On July 21, 1911, fire broke out, probably due to flying sparks from the chimney of the local fuel factory. The dry wooden shingle roofs of the farmhouses caught fire quickly and with the wind the fire spread quickly. 11 houses burned down, several residential buildings and utility buildings were damaged and the church with its works of art was a victim of flames. The tower burned and then the church roof too, the fire brigades rushing to it were powerless, only the rectory built in 1817 could be saved. The bells with the clapboard-roofed spire had fallen down, the roof of the church lay charred in the remains of the wall, the painted glass panes were shattered and burned out. Only the tomb of Hieronymus von Erlach in the side chapel and the tombs of Albrecht Friedrich von Erlach and the pastor's wife Maria Magdalena Langhans, protected under plank boards, have been preserved .

architecture

The rebuilt church of Hindelbank is slightly raised in the middle of the old part of the village, separated by the wall of the former cemetery on Kantonsstrasse. It is built with sandstone blocks from the nearby Krauchthal quarry. The nave with the choir is east facing and covered with a gable roof, the tower with the main entrance is attached to the west facade. The octagonal choir has four two-part tracery windows with Gothic art nouveau tracery . In the south wall there are two arched windows and the side entrance framed with Art Nouveau elements. Some recent tombs of pastors are placed on the wall. The Erlach family chapel and the memorial chapel have been added to the north side of the original building. In addition, instead of the north window, the instruction hall, which is no longer used today, was added, which was requested during the reconstruction in 1912–1913.

Inside, the church measures 20 meters in total, the choir 8.4 meters and the nave 11.1 meters. The ship is 8 meters wide at the front and 8.75 meters at the rear. The width of the choir is 7.2 meters and its height is 6.6 meters. It is covered with a flat ceiling , the nave with a round vaulted coffered ceiling made of elm wood. The axis of the ship is offset so that the north wall is flush and the south wall protrudes by 80 centimeters.

The high window in the south wall, the round one above the side portal, as well as the four high windows in the choir, had Gothic tracery decorations before the fire disaster, which were not reconstructed during the reconstruction for cost reasons.

The reconstruction, which took place within 17 months, was carried out by the most appointed church architect at the time, Karl Indermühle from Bern. It is thanks to him that today's church largely corresponds to the destroyed building.

Baptismal font and pulpit

Furnishing

The pulpit built into the new church has tracery carving on the parapet, similar to the new tracery in the Art Nouveau style of the choir windows, the seating in both the nave and the choir stalls are carpentry in a simple form. The bowl of the baptismal font made of Jurassic marble rests with eight columns on an octagonal base made of the same stone. There is a newer organ on the gallery .

The new glass paintings designed by the Bern painter Ernst Link and the glass painters Kirsch and Fleckner from Freiburg are remarkable . The donated pictures of the choir windows depict scenes from the life of Jesus: Jesus and the Samaritan woman, walk to Emmaus, the sower and Jesus as a friend of the children. In the two south windows there are half-length portraits of the reformers: Huldrich Zwingli , Niklaus Manuel , Johannes Calvin and Berchtold Haller . The coats of arms of the craftsmen involved were placed underneath. Also in the side chapel are two coats of arms, H. and A. von Erlach, designed by Link and made by E. Boss glass painting, Bern.

  • sidewindow

  • Jesus with a Samaritan woman at the well

  • Jesus and disciples of Emmaus

  • Parable of the sower

  • Jesus the child friend

former middle choir window

The destroyed stained glass

Bennenwil coat of arms (1527)

Thanks to the photographs, fortunately made a year before the fire, on behalf of the Swiss National Museum , black and white images of the panes have been preserved. The photographer H. Gugolz from Zurich took these pictures and described them to Hans Lehmann in 1913 and published them as an illustrated book by KJ Wyss. Then shortly after the church was built, the large panes of the choir windows and the nave were donated. These were in the choir on the left:

Central window:

  • St. Vincent , patron of Bern
  • Bernese coat of arms with imperial eagle (Bärnrych)

to the right:

  • St. Ursus with shield and armor, patron of Solothurn
  • Solothurn coat of arms with imperial eagle

Choir right side window:

The north window in the ship:

  • Coat of arms of the city of Thun of two lions held in a circular disk
  • Saint Catherine with sword
  • Saint Barbara with tower, chalice and palm

Ship south window:

The free area underneath was filled with 64 round panes of different sexes for all windows over later years. The purpose of the von Erlach is to represent the family's pedigree. The authorship of the panes is attributed to the Bernese glass painter Hans Funck by Hans Lehmann , but to the glass painter Hans Sterr von Bern by Berthold Haendcke .

Of the destroyed panes , only the round panes from Bennenwil and Grasburg could be restored, the panes from Solothurn have been preserved with partially supplemented fragments and are in the Historical Museum of Bern. A disk hangs in the Luther Church in Bad Harzburg , which may have been made from fragments of Hans von Erlach's donor disk.

Tombs

The most important parts of the church that were spared from the fire are the tombs of the lords of the castle and the tomb of the pastor's wife.

Grave monument for Hieronymus von Erlach

Hieronymus von Erlach

In a side chapel with a ribbed vault on the north wall of the nave, Albrecht Friedrich von Erlach, son of the important general in international service and mayor of Bern, Hieronymus von Erlach, had a tomb erected by the sculptor Johann August Nahl after his death in 1748 . A black-gray pyramid made of marble by Zweilütschinen rises above the sarcophagus made of reddish Grindelwald marble, on which the merits and titles of the deceased are recommended to posterity in gold letters. Five allegorical figures in gray sandstone recall the transience of earthly fame. Taken from Greco-Roman mythology, besides the weeping angel, the goddess of fame Fama with the laurel wreath and trumpet, Chronos the god of death with the scythe, Fortuna the goddess of luck, turned away from the viewer, and Minerva, the goddess of wisdom and warfare, who the Insignia of the mayor and the marshal's baton covered with the towel.

Maria Magdalena Langhans

While working on the tomb of Hieronymus von Erlach, Nahl lived in the nearby rectory. When the young pastor's wife Maria Magdalena Langhans- Wäber died in childbed with her newborn on Easter vigil in 1751, the sculptor created a tomb that attracted widespread attention in the following period. Today it is set in front of the tomb of Hieronymus von Erlach behind a wrought iron grille in the floor.

Albrecht Friedrich von Erlach

The grave slab originally hidden under the floor boards and created by Johann Friedrich Funk is attached to the wall of the side chapel as an epitaph.

Bells

The first three bells came from 1503 and were melted down in 1890 to cast a new bell. It was supplied by the Rüetschi company in Aarau and was tuned in G major. These bells were destroyed in the fire. In the year of the church fire, the Rüetschi foundry cast four bells decorated with the municipality's coat of arms.

The four bells with the inscriptions, the masses and the mood:

I. Glory to God in height , 150 cm, des'

II. Peace on earth , 120 cm, f '

III. And a pleasure to the people , 100 cm, as'

IV. Amen , 88 cm, b '

Kuhn organ from 1969

Organs

In the church bill of 1770, the purchase of an organ from Captain Meley in Bern to the Hindelbank churches for 448 crowns is certified. The organ maker Samson Scherrer from Geneva amplified and installed the instrument, which was probably only a positive. It was located on the reinforced gallery.

After 117 years and several repairs, the parish decided to buy a new organ from Friedrich Goll (Lucerne) with 10 registers for 5180 francs, which was inaugurated on May 4, 1888. After the fire of 1911, Goll built a new organ with 20 registers and an Art Nouveau prospectus, some with dummy pipes to make it look wider.

This instrument was replaced in 1969 by the new Kuhn organ . It has 27 registers, 2 manuals and a pedal with playing aids .

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
1. Pommer 16 ′
2. Principal 8th'
3. Reed flute 8th'
4th Viola da gamba 8th'
5. octave 4 ′
6th Pointed flute 4 ′
7th Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
8th. Night horn 2 ′
9. third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
10. Mixture IV-V 2 ′
11. Trumpet 8th'
II positive C – g 3 (swellable)
12. Dumped 8th'
13. Quintatön 8th'
14th Principal 4 ′
15th Reed flute 4 ′
16. Flageolet 2 ′
17th Largiot 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
18th Sharp IV 1'
19th Krummhorn 8th'
Pedals C – f 1
20th Principal bass 16 ′
21st Sub bass 16 ′
22nd Principle 8th'
23. Capstan flute 8th'
24. octave 4 ′
25th Mixture IV 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
26th Dulcian 16 ′
27. prong 8th'
  • Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
  • Playing aids : 3 free combinations, swell kick, tutti button, mixture holder and tongue holder

literature

  • Max Schweingruber: Hindelbank. Hindelbank community of residents, 1989.
  • Eduard Bähler: The Hindelbank Church and its art monuments. Bern 1900?
  • Hans Lehmann: The destroyed glass paintings in the Hindelbank church and their relationship to the Erlach family. Publishing house KJ Wyss, Bern 1913.
  • Susy Langhans-Maync: Bernese novellas. Verlag A. Francke, Bern 1948.

See also

Web links

Commons : Church Hindelbank  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ H. Lehmann: The lost glass paintings ..., page 2
  2. ↑ Bernese families: Konrad von Ergöw
  3. ↑ Hans Funck glass painter
  4. ^ Berthold Haendcke: Hans Sterr The glass painter from Bern
  5. ↑ Hans Lehmann: Hans Sterr , (contradiction page 57)
  6. ↑ organ portrait on the website of Kuhn Organ Builders, accessed on 14 March 2016th

Coordinates: 47 ° 2 '30.3 "  N , 7 ° 32' 24.2"  E ; CH1903:  607707  /  210084