Jegenstorf Church
The church Jegenstorf is the Reformed village church of Jegenstorf and belongs with the parish of Urtenen-Schönbühl and the parish of Jegenstorf to the Reformed parish of Jegenstorf-Urtenen, which includes the places Iffwil , Münchringen , Urtenen-Schönbühl , Mattstetten and Ballmoos . It has also been regularly available to the Roman Catholic community since 1969 in ecumenical friendship.
description
At the intersection of Bernstrasse and Iffwilstrasse, the village church of Jegenstorf is surrounded by a wall on an artificial hill. The entrance is under the tower built to the west of the church building, which has a pointed helmet covered with wood shingles. A canopy covers the sandstone-framed round arch portal with the Renaissance oak door. The ridge of the hipped roof extends at the same height from the tower over the nave and the choir. The octagonal choir has four tall, Gothic tracery windows and the nave has another six. To the north of the choir is the former sacristy. On the south facade, a painted sundial has been showing the time for centuries. Some tombs have been preserved around the church and an old, no longer usable bell has been placed at the entrance.
Inside, a bright hall opens in front of the gallery and behind the archway a retracted polygonal choir with old choir stalls . Next to the sacristy gate is the old four-seater priest's chair, under the middle window with rich Renaissance carvings, the triple court chair and on the right archway one for the schoolmaster. Opposite the pulpit with the slogan in Latin, the men's family's compartment , which is also decorated with stencil painting , is set up as a replacement for the Johannes altar, donated by Carl von Bonstetten in 1655. The equally designed stalls continue around the entire nave and on the left bears the names of all Jegenstorf pastors from 1527 to the present. On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the church, the late Gothic baptismal font with the sandstone tracery was equipped with a water-filled stainless steel bowl into which a drop falls from a vessel on the ceiling every three minutes. A work by the Bernese artist Franticek Klossner . The wooden ceiling of the nave has six fields divided by carved ribbons, the cross points of which form the four evangelist symbols angel, lion, bull and eagle.
History of the church
The Gallo-Roman manor
In 1859/60 remains of Roman buildings were discovered on the north-eastern cemetery wall and in 1947 the remains of a small Roman building to the west of the church under the gymnasium. Remains of a simple Roman oven were found under the street south of the church in 1955/56. During the renovation of the church floor in 1971, a brick well shaft was found under the gallery in the center aisle, which turned out to be a cistern from Roman times. The fountain was covered with a glass plate and illuminated; it can be viewed under the carpet runner. Later new finds from the area around the church were added, which point to the existence of a Roman manor in the 3rd and 4th centuries on the square of the church.
The first church
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A document from 1275, which is kept in the burger library in Bern, has been handed down as a reference about the previous church. It proves that Burchhard, Herr von Schwanden and his son Ulrich will give their daughter and sister Elisabeth as a morning gift when they get married, among other things, the church sentence to Jegenstorf.
The new church
With the strengthening of the Swiss Confederation, after the successful wars against Burgundy and Habsburg , the building of new churches went hand in hand as a sign of self-confidence. Because the parish of Jegenstorf had grown rapidly and had sufficient funds through donations to the little church, it was decided in 1513 to build a new church. On February 27, 1514, the foundation stone for today's church was laid by the parish priest Johannes Kramer von Bern in the presence of other important personalities. The contract of 1513 obliged the master Benedikt Frantz and his journeymen to demolish the old church and build a new one there. The church members had to dig up the foundations and bring in the stones from Ostermundigen that had been cut at the expense of the foreman, as well as the timber. According to the bishop's instructions, the church was whitewashed inside and out and probably not decorated with paintings. The consecration of the Marienkirche should have been in 1515.
Original equipment
A crucifixion group stood on a beam on the chancel arch and below it a high altar consecrated to the Mother of God, as well as the right side altar consecrated to the patron saint of the lord of the castle, St. John. A few years later, during the Reformation in 1528, these parts had to give way to new furnishings. Only the priests' chairs remained, which were now used by the choir court and other officials. The lord of the castle had his own stalls set up for himself and his family opposite the pulpit in order to assert his old right to this place. The valuable glass paintings in the church windows were also spared from the iconoclasm , probably out of respect for the influential donors.
The stained glass
The magnificent stained glass windows are an important sight of the church. They are among the most beautiful and oldest in the canton of Bern. Most of them were probably donated for the dedication of the church in 1515. At the top of the middle choir window is the coat of arms disks donated by the Council of Bern with the Mother of God as Queen of Heaven on the crescent moon; next to it, on the left, St. Vincent as the patron saint of Bern with a breviary and palm branch as attributes; on the right then presumably St. Achatius.
Underneath the Reich coat of arms flanked by two Bern coats of arms with angels as bearers. In the third row the coat of arms of those of von Wattenwyl and von Bonstetten . The northern choir window carries the panes donated by the Freiburg and Solothurn stalls and their city saints St. Niklaus and St. Urs as well as those from the von Erlach family . In the southern choir window are the panes of the Basel Foundation with the Annunciation and the Madonna in a halo, including Emperor Heinrich as the founder of the Basel Cathedral and the Venner of Basel, and below a pair of basilisks with the shields of Basel. The fourth choir window bears six more coats of arms of the von Erlach family. That of Hans Rudolf von Erlach at the bottom right shows "the destruction of the idols by King Joshuas", presumably based on a design by Niklaus Manuel , used as a comparative justification for the Reformation iconoclasm. In the front window of the south wall, above the coats of arms of Hans von Erlach and Magdalena von Mülinen, paintings of John the Baptist and James the Elder are depicted as pilgrims. The originals are in the Historisches Museum Bern. In other windows foundations of the cities of Thun, Unterseen and Büren and other family coats of arms. The last abbess of the Cistercian monastery Fraubrunnen, Margaretha von Ballmoos, is also remarkable. The foundations of the surrounding estates and cities are extraordinary and probably came about to create a good understanding with the lord of the castle, the influential Johann von Erlach. It is therefore understandable that the pious images were spared during the iconoclasm.
The bells
Four bells hang in the bells of the 40 meter high tower. They serve to call to prayer and also to strike the hour of the tower clock. The smallest of the previous bells was replaced in 1969 and is now next to the entrance gate. It was donated in 1660 by Hans Jakob von Bonstetten and Niklaus Rufer and cast in 1829 by Emanuel Meley in Bern. Its inscription reads: "Hear the Lord, for whoever hears my word and believes has eternal life".
The largest bell (des) with 1830 kg and 153 cm in diameter was donated in 1969 by Marie Rufer-Rufer from Urtenen and cast by H. Rüetschi in Aarau. Their saying: "Land, land, hear the word of the Lord" Jeremiah 22:29.
The year 1571 is written on the second bell (f) with a weight of 1000 kg and a diameter of 120 cm and "Frantz Sermund zoa Bärn poured me" in addition to "Sallig they hear and keep the word of God".
Also from 1969 comes the third bell (as) with 613 kg and 102 cm diameter and bears the biblical text: "Jesus Christ, yesterday and today and the same in eternity" Hebrews 13,8. The smallest bell (b) was donated by Hans Rudolf Genfer and Carolus von Bonstetten in 1659 and weighs 420 kg and measures 90 cm. It says: "I flowed to the Feyr, Abraham Zehnder in Bern poured me", and the verse: "To promote your salvation, only obey me, Matt. XII for the king's wedding, I call you". The bell has been operated electrically since 1969 and by an automatic bell since 1999. Because of the greater stress caused by the four bells, the tower was reinforced in 1969 and the belfry was rebuilt and separated from the walls.
The tower clock was built by the JGBaer company in Sumiswald in 1905 and is still in use today. Its three dials are visible from afar.
The organ
The schoolmaster, whose chair is at the choir entrance, originally accompanied the church singing as the lead singer. A first organ was only built on the gallery at the end of the 18th century. The instrument, which had been revised and expanded several times, was replaced by a Goll organ in 1948 and expanded with 28 registers as early as 1972 by the organ builder Ziegler-Heberlein from Uetikon ZH. In 1994, Thomas Wälti, Gümligen, carried out another complete renovation and re-intonation. The organ now has 28 registers with a total of 1826 pipes.
See also
Web links
- Website of the parish of Jegenstorf-Urtenen
- 500 years Jegenstorf Church (PDF 2.46 MB)
- Historical exhibition (PDF 3.53 MB)
- Anne-Marie Dubler : Jegenstorf. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
literature
- Christian Pfister, et al .: Jegenstorf A Local History , Local History Commission of the Jegenstorf Community, Fischer Druck Münsingen-Bern, 1989, ISBN 3856812156
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jürg Meienberg: Pfarrblatt No. 41–42, October 4, 2014, page 6 (PDF 2.9 MB) ( Memento from November 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Media release from the Archaeological Service of the Canton of Bern of February 18, 2008
- ↑ Certificate of March 9, 1275 ( Memento of September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Jahrzeitbuch page 19 ff.
- ^ Alfred Aeppli: Photos of the glass paintings
Coordinates: 47 ° 3 '1.5 " N , 7 ° 30' 26.1" E ; CH1903: 605 214 / 211047