Oberstrass Church
The Oberstrass Church is an Evangelical Reformed church in the Oberstrass district of the city of Zurich .
history
prehistory
Since the Middle Ages, the area of today's Oberstrass church belonged to the church district of the Grossmünster . When the Grossmünster parish became too extensive, Oberstrass was assigned to the newly created preacher community in 1614 . Since the way into the city was long, the desire arose for an own prayer house in Oberstrass . This was built in 1734 at the site of today's parish hall and inaugurated on May 1, 1735. In 1861 Oberstrass was raised to the rank of parish, but remained assigned to the parish preachers for another 30 years.
In 1871 the prayer house was expanded into a church by adding a transverse building with a spacious gallery on the south side . The new building was provided with a squat tower with a roof turret . A black and blue dial with gold pointers and numbers was attached to the tower on the street side. The octagonal roof turret had light green sound shutters on all sides. Between 1872 and 1910 a small bell tuned to A hung in it. With the inauguration of today's church, the old church became superfluous and it was sold to the city of Zurich. Together with the school house, the parish bought the building back in 1934 and set up the provisional parish hall in it. The old church was demolished in 1957. In their place the new parish hall was built, which was inaugurated on June 28, 1958.
Building history of today's church
When building activity began in Oberstrass around 1900, the first church in Oberstrass became too small. In 1906 a limited competition took place, at the end of which the project was recommended for further processing by architects Pflegehard and Haefeli . In 1907 the revised project named Schutz und Schirm won and was implemented between 1908 and 1910. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on April 13, 1908, and the foundation stone was laid on July 12, 1908. During the summer of 1909, the topping-out ceremony was held and the bell lifted on October 6, 1909. The church was on Sunday, March 6, 1910 inaugurated . After an initial gentle renovation from 1945 to 1949, the interior was renovated from 1971 to 1976 by the architect Oskar Bitterli. In 1993 the rusty bell cage was replaced. From 1996 to 1998 the exterior renovation of the nave, tower and rectory took place under the architect Christine von Merkesteyn-Heer. On January 10, 2000, a fire ignited in the nave, which is why the interior of the church had to be renovated again. Under Christine von Merkesteyn-Heer, the church was largely restored to its original state. The large organ from 1975, which had suffered severely from the fire, was then dismantled and replaced by a digital organ. The pews have been replaced with chairs so that the church can be redesigned for concerts and special events. During this renovation, the original Bible verses were replaced by new ones and a meeting room was created in the basement. The church was consecrated again on May 13, 2001. The Oberstrass church is a listed building and is classified as worthy of cantonal protection (middle of the three protection levels).
Building description
Exterior and bells
The Oberstrass church stands in a loop of the rising Stapferstrasse , on the western slope of the Zürichberg , directly next to the Scherr schoolhouse. A terrace is in front of the church and the school building in the southwest. On the valley side, the so-called Sonntagsteig leads up to the schoolhouse and church. To the east of the church, in front of the parsonage, is the small parish garden with tall conifers . This garden was included in the inventory of gardens and facilities worthy of protection .
The conception of the Oberstrass church can be clearly read from the outside: an apse is attached to the long rectangular nave in the northeast, the main portal is built in front of the main facade in the southwest. The square tower in the southwest, the instruction rooms in the northwest and the rectory attached to the church in the southeast complete the complex. In the first decades of the 20th century, the architecture company, Pflegehard und Haefeli, which led the way in the exterior of the church in Oberstrass, exemplified what it meant by true form and material : The various building materials were used to accentuate and structure, and it was ensured that only high quality materials were used used and carefully processed.
In the church tower there is a five-part bell that was created in the H. Rüetschi bell foundry in Aarau. The ideal quartet sounds as a motif with a doubled keynote.
| number | volume | Casting year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | c 1 | 1909 |
| 2 | it 1 | 1909 |
| 3 | f 1 | 1909 |
| 4th | as 1 | 1909 |
| 5 | c 2 | 1909 |
Indoor
The church has a gallery hall covered with a gable roof. A small portal is built in front of the valley side, flanked by the tower with the elongated openings and a clock. On the opposite long side is the singing gallery in a small extension. The rectory is built on the eastern side of the choir, with a round passage in between. The building has a classically strict structure with restrained Art Nouveau ornamentation. The decoration was created by Joseph von Moos (glass painting with children singing and making music), Walter Jäggli-Fröhlich (glass coats of arms), Georg Röttinger (painting with a representation of the Great Minster) and Georg Burgstaller (relief in the apse with twelve angels offering their gifts to Christ ). During the renovation in 2001, a new glass window with a Bible verse, executed by Franco Giulio Giacomel, was installed at the ship entrance. The church offers around 1,000 seats.
organ
In 1910 the church received a romantic organ with 41 stops and 8 extracts / transmissions on 3 manuals and pedal, which was built by the organ building company Kuhn . In 1933 the Kuhn organ company carried out an overhaul, with changes to the sound also being made. In 1946 the Kuhn company carried out an overhaul and conversion of the windchest to electropneumatic pocket drawers. The organ, with its romantic arrangement, was converted into a baroque organ in line with the taste of the time. The organ then had 39 registers on 3 manuals and a pedal. The instrument was not considered worth preserving in the 1960s and was decommissioned in 1974. In 1975 the Kuhn company built a new, mechanical slider-door organ on the west gallery. The instrument had 32 registers on three manuals and a pedal. In 1988 the organ building company Trost AG built a new, electric slider-drawer organ with 12 stops on 2 manuals and a pedal in the old organ case of the first organ. The console was below the side gallery in front of the choir. When the organ was rebuilt in 1988, two different organs were available in the Oberstrass church. After both organs had suffered badly in the fire in the church in 2000, the Trost company dismantled the large organ from 1975 on the west gallery and renovated the smaller organ from 1988. In 2001, an electronic Allen organ with over 90 stops was installed, with the possibility of expanding this by a further 100 registers. The pipe organ from 1988 can also be connected to the digital organ via a midi interface. The pipe organ from 1988 can still be played separately on its own console. In 2003, the outsourced parts of the organ from 1975 were sold to the organ company Andreas Ladach, Bergisch Gladbach, which restored the organ and then installed it in the Catholic Church of St. Josef in Heidkamp .
Disposition of the Trost organ from 1988:
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- Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
See also
literature
- H. Bucher and J. Spinner: The new church Oberstrass. Zurich 1911.
- Quartierverein Oberstrass (Ed.): Oberstrass. Its development from the upper street to the urban quarter of Zurich. Verlag Hans Rohr, Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-85865-069-2 , pp. 112-123.
- INSA inventory of newer Swiss architecture 1850-1921. Volume 10, Orell Füssli , Winterthur / Zurich / Zug 1992, ISBN 3-280-02180-4 , p. 413.
- Daniel Johannes Frei: The Evangelical Reformed Church Oberstrass. Download of the parish of Oberstrass. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
- Building Construction Department of the City of Zurich: Reformed Churches of the City of Zurich. Special inventory. Zurich 2006
Individual evidence
- ^ History of the Oberstrass Church. Download of the parish of Oberstrass. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
- ^ Building Department of the City of Zurich: Reformed Churches of the City of Zurich. Special inventory. Zurich 2006, p. 70.
- ^ Building Department of the City of Zurich: Reformed Churches of the City of Zurich. Special inventory. Zurich 2006, p. 72.
- ^ History of the Oberstrass Church. Download of the parish of Oberstrass. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
- ^ Building Department of the City of Zurich: Reformed Churches of the City of Zurich. Special inventory. Zurich 2006, pp. 70–71.
- ↑ Information on YouTube. Retrieved August 1, 2015.
- ^ Building Department of the City of Zurich: Reformed Churches of the City of Zurich. Special inventory. Zurich 2006, pp. 70–72.
- ^ Organ directory Switzerland and Liechtenstein, section Ref. Church Zurich-Oberstrass, organ from 2000. Retrieved on August 1, 2015.
Web links
- Description on the website of the church administration
- Evangelical Reformed parish of Zurich-Oberstrass
- Bells on YouTube
Coordinates: 47 ° 23 '1.9 " N , 8 ° 32' 48.7" E ; CH1903: six hundred and eighty-three thousand six hundred eighty-three / 248705