Bremgarten church district
The city church forms the center of the church district in the lower town of Bremgarten . This includes St. Anna Chapel, Mother of God Chapel and St. Clare Chapel as well as the rectory, parish helper, organist house, honor chaplain, chaplain St. Anna, Sigristenhaus and a beneficiary house. The church is surrounded by lawns that were once a large cemetery. Since the 1980s, there have been individual graves of clergymen near the old burial passage.
Location around the Kirchhofplatz
The center of the parish is the town church, which stands free-standing on the churchyard square. The square is bordered by three streets and by the ensemble of St. Anne's Chapel and the Chapel of Our Lady to the southeast. The Pfarrgasse runs to the northeast, the Schodolergasse to the northwest, and the Kirchgasse to the southwest. Behind the ensemble runs Schenkgasse, which becomes Schulgasse north of Pfarrgasse.
On the northeast side of the churchyard square is the Catholic rectory and next to the rectory is the parish priest's house . The Ehrenkaplanei is located southeast of the parish helper's house on Schulgasse. The Chapel of Our Lady is east of the funeral hall , which is in front of and under the organist's house. The St. Anna Chapel is to the west of it.
Behind the Mother of God Chapel on Schenkgasse, there is a beneficiary house, which is called the Alte Pfrund or Black Castle . The Sigristenhaus and the chaplaincy St. Anna are on the northwest side on Schodolergasse. The former St. Klara Monastery with the St. Klara Chapel is located north of the Kirchhofplatz between Schodolergasse and Pfarrgasse and only touches the square with its southernmost corner.
building
The St. Klara Monastery was founded in 1377 and dissolved on August 23, 1798. The town church is dedicated to St. Nicholas. The oldest parts date from 1343. The church burned down on March 28, 1984, but was rebuilt true to the original. The former monastery church was built in 1625.
The St. Anna Chapel is located in the southern corner of the Kirchhofplatz. It is connected to the Chapel of Our Lady via the funeral hall. The exact construction date of the chapel is unknown. It is uncertain whether it emerged from the ossuary, which was first mentioned in 1395 . Only the year of the dedication of the altar is certain. This was consecrated in 1487 in honor of the mother of Jesus , all apostles and the saints Wolfgang, Blasius, Martha and Ottilia. On the occasion of the excavations and wall investigations carried out in 1957/58, the result was that it is very likely that the chapel was rebuilt shortly before the consecration. It originally had two floors. An outside staircase led to the second floor. An ossuary was built to the south of the chapel.
In 1645 the chapel was rebuilt and enlarged. The intermediate floor was removed and the first floor was raised by 0.9 meters. The present choir was also added. The ossuary had to be demolished for this. At the same time, Gregor Allhelg renewed the Mount of Olives on the outer facade . The chapel was consecrated on July 25, 1647 in honor of St. Martha. Since 1774 at the latest, St. Anna has been the main patron saint of the chapel. Privileges from the years 1759 and 1775 can be found on the altar. The painter Johann Baptist Peragrin from Constance renovated the Mount of Olives in 1775. In 1957, the then orphaned chapel was converted into a baptistery on the occasion of an interior renovation. In 1958/59 the building underwent an exterior renovation, with HA Fischer from Bern again renovating the Mount of Olives. During the renewed renovation in 1987, the baptismal font was moved to the town church. Since then the chapel has been used for exhibitions.
In the chapel there is an altar with an apparition made of black marble . Presumably it was created by Gregor Allhelg . Statues of St. Melchior and St. Verena stand on it. The Melchior statue dates from 1655, the Verena statue from 1658. The saints are the namesake of the donor couple Melchior Honegger and Verena Schriber.
In addition to St. Melchior and St. Verena, St. Anna has also been the main patroness of the chapel since 1774. The chapel served as a baptistery from 1975 to 1987. The baptismal font was placed in the town church after the renovation. Today at the St. Anna Chapel is the triptych of the Mount of Olives by the sculptor Gregor Allhelg in a bay window , which is opened around Easter.
Our Lady Chapel: On the site of an earlier chapel built in 1409, a new chapel of the Brotherhood of Our Lady was built in 1452. In the new building, the chapel was decorated with frescoes that were painted over during the Reformation. After the end of the Reformation and Bremgarten's return to the Catholic faith, new frescoes were created. The early late Gothic frescoes were exposed again during the restoration of 1957/1958.
In the chancel there is a crucifixion group by Gregor Allhelg. Since 1607, a bar grating with a later attached tendril attachment has separated the chancel from the nave. In 1608 the chapel was expanded because it had become too small as a pilgrimage chapel. In 1757 it was given a new Rococo altar during the Baroque period. It was expanded in 1767 with a replica of the hermit image by Johann Baptist Babel .
The core of the Catholic rectory on the north side of the churchyard square goes back to the medieval building. Master mason Arbogast Rey renovated it in 1738 and added a staircase to the rear. The almost square stone plaster building has a gable roof . The carved, arched Louis- Seize portal was created in 1811.
The late-Gothic parishioner's house next to the rectory was renovated and partially rebuilt in 1952/53. The front with the three-tiered stepped gable faces the churchyard square and is divided between the two upper floors by a roof. The former chaplaincy is a free - standing half - timbered building with a masonry ground floor, which was previously plastered.
The former chaplain of St. Anna is a terraced house on Schodolergasse. The bricked ground floor has a framed, arched sales window. The two upper storeys protruding like a bay window have a decorative ornamental bar facade.
The former Sigristenhaus is also a terraced house on Schodolergasse. The ground floor is bricked. Like the neighboring house, the former chaplain, it has two upper floors protruding like a bay window. On the upper floors, the decorative transom facade was exposed again during a renovation; it used to be plastered.
The former organist house forms an ensemble with the St. Anna and Mother of God Chapel. It was built in 1639 and renovated in 1972. Originally it was not intended as a house for organists, but was the house of the Michaelskaplanei founded in 1458. The timber structure, which is covered with a curved gable roof, has a high wall base with pointed arched cellar lights. Today it is used exclusively as a residential building.
literature
- The Art Monuments of Switzerland , Volume 54 Art Monuments of the Canton of Aargau. Volume 4 The Bremgarten District. 1967