Vechigen Church

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Vechigen church with rectory

The Vechigen Church is the Reformed village church in the municipality of Vechigen in the canton of Bern . The parish west with Boll, Vechigen, Lindental and Dentenberg as well as the parish east with the areas from the Mänziwilegg via Lauterbach, Littewil, Ätzrütti and Utzigenrain to the Worbstrasse in Boll belong to the parish.

description

The church, originally dedicated to St. Martin , is visible from afar on a ledge . The tower with a gable roof is attached to the south of the east-facing hall building. The churchyard is bordered by a wall to the street and is surrounded by an assembly group with a pfrund barn, rectory and old farmhouses. The entrance is on the western wall of the church under a canopy, as is the case with other Bernese country churches. Inside, a bright hall opens in front of the gallery and behind the archway a retracted polygonal choir with old choir stalls .

history

The first church

A document from 1175 in the papal book of tithes ( liber detimationis ) has been preserved about a previous church . It proves that the people priest of “Vechingen” had to deliver a tenth part of his income as “crusade tax” for the rescue of the “Holy Land” decided at the Council of Lyon in 1174. From this it can be concluded that a church already existed at that time. Around 1300, Bern formed an enlarged city district from the church games Bolligen, Stettlen, Vechigen and Muri and made it subject to its jurisdiction. The church set (collature) of Vechigen belonged to the brothers Niklaus and Anton von Blankenburg in 1352. These passed on the right of collage as a fiefdom to various Bernese citizens. Through her, the property came to the Heiliggeistspital in Bern via the Niedere Spital . In 1418, through the formal incorporation of the Pope , the Abbot of Frienisberg received the order to incorporate the parish church of Vechigen into the Heiliggeistspital. In 1480 the monastery and hospital sold the right of collision to Wilhelm von Diesbach for life. He was mayor of Bern and Lord of Worb , Signau and Diessbach until his death in 1517. After 1519, despite disputes over inheritance with Wilhelm's sons, the church rate was returned to the monastery and Heiliggeistspital. For financial reasons, the monastery then sold to the newly founded municipal hospital in 1592, which remained the owner of the rights until the collation rights were revoked in 1839. In the rectory fire of 1572, many documents were lost, which makes further research difficult.

The new church

In 1486 a new church tower had to be built. Presumably, the walls were already severely damaged by the catastrophic earthquake in Basel on October 18, 1356, which also struck Bern. Ernst Grunder wrote in his chronicle of 1903: "In 1486 the church tower was knocked down by a violent storm and the bells broke ." Above the northern entrance gate in the choir, the coat of arms of the client Wilhelm von Diesbach is attached with an inscription. He had the new tower built. During his tenure, the new church was built from 1513 to 1514.

In 1729 the church was renovated with support from Bern. A sacristy with a monopitch roof was added in 1871 to the east by the tower and choir. The extensive renovation from 1954 to 1956 exposed the surrounds of the choir arch, windows and doors made of tuff stone. An archaeological investigation of the building site did not take place.

Furnishing

The octagonal pulpit from 1734 in Régence style with a slightly profiled sound cover is attached to the choir arch. It bears the donor's coat of arms with the initials ND for Niklaus Dachselhofer (1634–1707) von Utzigen and the year 1734. The Last Supper table from 1729 has a profiled plate on the baroque base, both made of black marble (Oberland limestone).

Stained glass

Archangel Michael and coat of arms of Bern

In the Spickeln the mass work of the five choir windows plant motifs are included as stained glass. Starting from the left - red grapes, thistles, irises in the middle with the year 1907, on the right dog roses and dandelions. In addition, donated panes from Bern with the Bern coat of arms and the Archangel Michael slaying the dragon and from the Synodal Council Bern with the risen Christ and the attributes of the Evangelists are in the corners. They were painted by P. Zehnder and manufactured in 1956 by the Halter glass workshop in Bern.

Bells

All five bells come from the Rüetschi Aarau bell foundry. The first three were cast in 1862 and the fourth was added in 1884. They form the chord es – g – b – es. They bear the inscriptions: CHRIST IS MY LIFE / DYING IS MY GAIN / RISING IS MY HOPE / GOD IS LOVE . In 1977 a foundation that tuned to tone c added a fifth bell with the inscription THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD, I WILL LACK OF NOTHING .

organ

The organ has a case decorated with garlands and vases and provided with trombone-playing putti from 1790. It has around 1200 pipes made of both wood and metal. Nothing is known about the builder so far. The two-manual work comes from Orgelbau Geneva.

Web links

Commons : Kirche Vechigen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Barbara Junker-Wisler et al .: History of the municipality of Vechigen. Vechigen municipal administration, Stämpfli + Cie, Bern 1995.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ernst Grunder, History of the Municipality of Vechigen. Vechigen 1903.
  2. ↑ Hans Gugger : The Bernese organs. Stämpfli, Bern 1978. Pages 526–528 (mention of the organ).
  3. ↑ ref. Church Vechigen in the organ directory Switzerland-Liechtenstein , accessed on the private website on March 21, 2015.

Coordinates: 46 ° 56 '42.5 "  N , 7 ° 33' 33.8"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred and nine thousand one hundred ninety-four  /  199,345