Madonna degli Emigrati

The church Madonna degli Emigrati in Bern

The church Madonna degli Emigrati of the Missione Cattolica Italiana is also the community center of the Italian-speaking population of Bern . It was built in 1960–1963 by the Bernese architect Rinaldo de Maddalena.

history

The Italian Catholic Mission in Bern has existed since 1927 with the arrival of the Bonomellian priests ( Opera d'assistenta degli emigranti ), founded by the Bishop of Cremona, Geremia Bonomelli , specifically to support Italians who emigrated to Europe. Father Ireneo Rizzi worked as a missionary until 1947, after which Scalabrini missionaries and Father Giuseppe Vigolo took over the mission. At that time, the mission area covered the entire canton of Bern, with the entire Jura that was still connected at that time. In the meantime, further Italian missions have been set up in Lyss and Biel, in Burgdorf and Langenthal, in Konolfingen and in Thun for the Oberland. Skilled workers, many artisans and unskilled people had immigrated from the industrial areas and rural provinces of Italy, who mainly found work as domestic help, workers, masons or in agriculture. In the uplands, dams were built with the help of many Italian workers. In those years, hundreds of Italians were looking for a daily meeting place in Bern, especially on Saturdays and Sundays. For the time being, the parish of Trinity made the crypt of the church available for worship and, if possible, the large adjoining room. On June 1, 1951, the mission was able to move into a building at Alpenstrasse 22 in Bern's Kirchenfeld district and also set up a kindergarten in the neighboring building. After a time with more and more visitors, the house on Alpenstrasse was sold and a more suitable plot of land on Bovetstrasse was bought to build a church and the associated parish rooms.

Building description

Missione cattolica italiana, Bern

Mission entrance area

On the newly acquired property on the corner of Bovetstrasse / Friedeckweg in the Monbijou district of Bern , the architect Rinaldo de Maddalena created a cubic church building as a concrete structure. The northeast facade consists of concrete slats with slots for indirect light. A large cross on the northwest facade marks the building as a church. Underneath, in the recessed plinth wall clad with natural stone mosaic, is the double-winged entrance door to the church. The common rooms are built to the west of the church cube at the same height. Offices and parish rooms are located in the basement. In the large halls above, a restaurant serves the guests in a traditional Italian way and thus offers visitors a piece of local culture. The church has no bell tower and no bell. A modern administration building has recently been built next to the church building; only an atrium in the middle of the building complex allows daylight to penetrate from the south and west into the offices in the basement and through the large, colored church window.

Interior and artistic equipment

You enter the church under the gallery in the center aisle, which is accompanied on both sides in slightly rounded rows of banks. The walls and the ceiling are smoothly plastered and painted slightly tinted. On the right side wall there has been a 7 × 3.5 meter large, predominantly blue glass window with three scenes from the life of the Virgin, designed by the artist Giorio Scalco (* 1929) from Schio in the province of Vicenza and by the glass workshop since 1963 Caron, Vetrate e Mosaici d'Arte from Vicenza. The angel's Annunciation to Mary is shown on the left. In the middle the mother Mary with raised hands under the cross of Jesus, accompanied and supported by two disciples. On the right the Assumption of Mary is shown, she is surrounded by angels.

For the redesign of the chancel, the painter Franco Mastrovita from Vicenza was commissioned in 1990 to make a design according to his own ideas. His presented topic “New Heaven and New Earth” met with some approval, the pastors at the time asked him to change the topic “Hospitality”, which better suited the purpose of the mission. A cross-wall painting was realized, the design and theme of which is based on the existing works of art and is connected to the sacred furnishings. A group of figures with a statue of the Madonna that is called by four emigrants, some kneeling, stands on the altar steps on the left side wall. The group of sculptures was allegedly carved in Val Gardena in South Tyrol and given to the community by Don Ireneo Rizzi when he left in 1947. Behind the portrait a painted door frame symbolizes the gate of heaven. Continuing on the mural under an oak stands the progenitor Abraham in a tent where he is visited by angels and learns about the pregnancy of his elderly wife Sarah. ( Gen 16.9 EU ) From the Crisalide stretched out by Sarah , modeled on an insect doll , as a symbol for her son Issak, the people of Israel emerged. In a long pilgrimage, the Israelites carry the ark with and meet in the center of the image on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

The almost floor-to-ceiling crucifix is the work of the sculptor and painter Bruno Vedovato (1906–1986) from the province of Vicenza. Moving on, the pilgrims arrive at the Emmaus inn, where the risen Jesus is only recognized by the two disciples through his breaking of bread. ( Lk 24 : 13-35 EU ). The saying of the disciples “Lord stay with us, because evening will come” is represented by the blue night sky behind a wall, which continues in the blue glass front. The individual scenes are divided into triangular fields with concise lines and at the same time connected in a radial fashion. In the dark right corner is the tabernacle on a stretcher designed by the artist Mastrovita , corresponding to the Ark of the Covenant in the picture.

The font in the shape of a fountain was moved from the baptistery in the entrance area to the altar steps during the redesign. Under the Easter candle , the water of life flows in four directions into the cross-shaped open basin. The ambo consists of a pyramid-shaped upper part made of brass, which is stuck with its tip in the divided stone base, which symbolizes Jesus Christ as the new root Jesse . A triangular shaped oak furniture serves as the priest's seat, which in front of the mural depicts the holy mountain Sinai as the place of the search for God. ( Ex 19.1–3 EU ) The stone altar base carries an asymmetrically placed plate, the underside of which is also clad with polished brass.

In the former baptistery is the statue of St. Anthony of Padua , made in 1992, with the baby Jesus in his arms and the bread of St. Anthony in his hand, symbolizing patronage for the poor. Behind it, the wall is covered by a bas-relief made by the ceramicist Alessio Tasca (* 1929). It bears the inscription Ecce Agnus Dei qui tollit peccata mundi ("See the Lamb of God, who bears the sin of the world") over the Eucharist symbols . In addition, the fourteen pictures of the Stations of the Cross from 1963 by the artist Cesare Sartori from the SICART ceramic workshop in Nove , Province of Vicenza, should be mentioned.

Profane works of art

On the gallery is a painting on polygonal wooden panels with four scenes for the order of the Scalabrin priests: people leave their own village with the church tower and the roofs, the Bishop Scalabrini is supported by Maria, the migrants on the journey in Milan and the Tunnel to the border, the border barrier and the rejection of the foreign country through the word "NO", the arrival with the house of the missionaries and thorn-studded scaffolding as a representation of the hard work.

organ

Swallow's Nest Organ

The console of the electronic instrument with two manuals and a pedal is on the gallery. The organ pipes are built into the left side wall as a swallow's nest organ .

literature

Gabriela Hanke et al .: Catholic Bern from 1799 to 1999. A stopover . Total Roman Catholic parish of Bern and the surrounding area, Bern 1999.
Maria Gabriella Perissinotto, Franco Mastrovita, Antonio Grasso: Arte e Fede, Art and Faith . Missione Cattolica, Bern 2018, p. 39 .

Web links

Commons : Madonna degli Emigrati - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Website of the Missione Cattolica Italiana in Bern accessed on September 18, 2019
Berchtold Weber: Chiesa Madonna degli Emigranti. In: Historical-Topographical Lexicon of the City of Bern. Burgerbibliothek Bern, 2016, accessed on September 17, 2019 .

Individual evidence

↑ La nostra storia. Retrieved September 20, 2019 .
↑ La nostra storia. Retrieved September 20, 2019 .
↑ Maria Gabriella Perissinotto, Franco Mastrovita, Antonio Grasso: Arte e Fede, art and faith . Missione Cattolica, Bern 2018, p. 39 .