Assumption of Mary (Schönenwerd)
The Church of the Assumption of Mary is the Roman Catholic Church of Schönenwerd . It was built between 1937 and 1938 according to plans by the church architect Fritz Metzger .
History and parish structure
prehistory
In 778, Bishop Remigius from Strasbourg bequeathed the monastery Werith , which stood on an island in the Aare and belonged to the municipality of Gretzenbach , to the local cathedral monastery in his will . Around the year 1000 the monastery was rededicated as a monastery . The oldest parts of the collegiate church still come from the original building from the 11th century. Throughout the centuries, the monastery shaped the entire region. The collegiate church of St. Leodegar was sacked by the Bernese and Solothurn residents in 1388 and was only rededicated in 1491, when the monastery was already part of Solothurn. Since Solothurn remained Catholic during the Reformation , the monastery could be preserved. After the Confederation was occupied by Napoleonic troops in 1798, the municipality broke away from the monastery and was given political independence in the Helvetic Republic . After the fall of Napoleon in 1815, the monastery was restored, but was finally abolished in 1874 as a result of the Kulturkampf .
Establishment of today's parish
In the course of the industrial revolution , a number of factories were built in the region; From the middle of the 19th century, Schönenwerd was largely shaped by the factories of the industrialist Carl Franz Bally, who was born in Schönenwerd . In 1875 a Christian Catholic association was formed and Bally became president. The declared goal of the Christian Catholics was to renounce Rome and the Pope . Since the majority of Schönenwerder Catholics professed the Christian Catholic faith, they received permission from the Solothurn government in 1876 to hold their services in the former collegiate church of St. Leodegar.
The Roman Catholic priest then refused to share the church with the Christian Catholics, which is why from 1877 the Roman Catholic services were held in an emergency church above the collegiate church. Over the decades, more and more Roman Catholic believers moved to Schönenwerd, so that the dilapidated small emergency church was no longer sufficient. In the years 1937–1938, the young, already renowned Zurich architect Fritz Metzger built the new Roman Catholic Church, which was consecrated to the Assumption of Mary by the Bishop of Basel , Franziskus von Streng .
In 1975 an interior renovation of the church, in which also the chancel to the requirements of the liturgical constitution of the Second Vatican Council has been adjusted. In 1988 the parish built the new parish home east of the church.
Building description
Church towers and exterior
Architect Fritz Metzger was aware of the challenge of building the new church in Schönenwerd. On the one hand, the Roman Catholic Christians wanted to build a representative church after decades in the too small emergency church, on the other hand, he knew that a new church in the immediate vicinity of the historic collegiate church of St. Leodegar would always be measured against this and therefore had to be cleverly designed.
While the collegiate church is eastward and a baroque front tower has been rising on the west side since 1679 , the Roman Catholic Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary faces north and has two massive choir-flank towers. Thanks to their exposed location on the Bühlhügel, these are visible from afar and refer to the location of the church. Since the collegiate church of St. Leodegar had two late Gothic towers until the 17th century , which then had to be demolished because of their dilapidation, Fritz Metzger's concept of the Maria Himmelfahrt church takes up the historic twin towers of the collegiate church without copying its late Gothic silhouette . To the south, against the direct access to the church via Schmiedengasse , the exterior of the Maria Himmelfahrt church is modest and modern : the two towers can hardly be seen from the forecourt of the church. Instead, a wide flight of stairs leads up to the unadorned front facade of the church.
The two towers of the church are so large that the six-part bell made in 1938 by the nearby Aarau foundry H. Rüetschi could have been placed in just one tower. The bells with the striking notes B - cʹ - dʹ - f - gʹ - bʹ are split in half. Together they have a total weight of 9712 kg and sound as a completed Salve Regina motif with a doubled keynote. In 2017, the bells were refurbished by the Rüetschi company. The old, rotten wooden bell chairs were removed and a new steel chair was installed instead. Since the two towers are open, the bells are still exposed to the weather. The bells now hang slightly cranked and have ProBell clappers. The towers rise as an extension of the transepts.
The rectory is attached to the eastern tower; The parish center is located in the basement of the church. The parish home built in 1988 to complement the building ensemble by Fritz Metzger is a separate building southeast of the church.
Interior and artistic equipment
The interior of the Church of the Assumption of Mary surprises with the height and length of the central nave , which is flanked by two lower aisles, in which there is essentially only one corridor each that leads to the pews . The choir adjoins the central nave to the north and forms a single space with the transept, so that the church has a basilica floor plan. Oversized round windows are set into the unadorned walls of the nave in the upper aisle , one in the west wall at the height of the organ gallery , the others offset to this along the east wall. Two narrow galleries were built into the east transept , which cannot be seen from the main nave. The ceiling of the main nave is slightly vaulted and thus approximates a barrel vault, while the ceiling above the choir and the transepts is formed as a groin vault. The renunciation of splendid furnishings allows the room to appear as such. The Church of the Assumption radiates austerity and modernity both inside and out.
The following two elements have essentially been preserved from the original furnishings: The tabernacle , which was made from gold-plated bronze by Albert Schilling and is housed in the east side aisle on the lower choir wall. And the pulpit , which was built at the transition from the central nave to the choir and consists of a massive round body, which is raised by a flat sound cover . The flooring in the church aisles and in the choir, consisting of naturally split Gneiss slabs, also dates from the time it was built . The columns between the side and main aisles were clad with Othmarsinger shell limestone . The stairs to the choir date from the time the church was redesigned and, like the side altars and the original main altar , which is no longer in existence, are made of serpentine , the walls and ceilings were made of rough lime abrasion . The modern folk altar and also the choir cross floating down from the ceiling were carved from light marble . The baptismal font is also from more recent times and was made from the material of the original main altar. The choir cross consists of isosceles round bars and a ball in the middle, on which a hand of Jesus Christ is depicted in blue , on which in turn the blood from the crucifixion wound can be seen.
chapel
Under the gallery you get to the prayer chapel . In contrast to the church, it is east-facing and has a curved choir wall on which the original altar has been preserved. The altar is flanked by two figures: a gold-framed Madonna and a bronze statue of St. Brother Klaus , which was designed similarly to the stations of the Cross in the side aisles .
organ
For the emergency church in 1877, Carl Theodor Kuhn , Männedorf, built a pneumatic membrane shutter organ with 13 registers on 2 manuals and a pedal in 1908 .
In 1960 the company Orgelbau Kuhn AG, Männedorf, built today's instrument with 35 sounding registers on 3 manuals and a pedal.
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literature
- The work: Architecture and Art = L'oeuvre: architecture et art, Volume 28, 1941, Issue 1 «Catholic Church Art », pp. 8–15.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ On the history of our parish. Website of the Niederamt pastoral area. Retrieved August 19, 2017.
- ^ Section Schönenwerd, The Catholic Parish Church - a modern solution of the Kulturkampf. NIKE National Heritage Site website, Retrieved August 19, 2017.
- ^ Section on the history of our parish. Website of the Niederamt Pastoral Area Retrieved August 6, 2019.
- ^ Section Schönenwerd, The Catholic Parish Church - a modern solution of the Kulturkampf. NIKE National Heritage Site website, Retrieved August 19, 2017.
- ↑ Information from YouTube.Retrieved August 6, 2019.
- ↑ Information from YouTube.Retrieved August 7, 2019.
- ^ Section Schönenwerd, The Catholic Parish Church - a modern solution of the Kulturkampf. NIKE National Heritage Site website, Retrieved August 19, 2017.
- ^ Journal Das Werk: Architektur und Kunst = L'oeuvre: architecture et art , Volume 28, Year 1941, Issue 1 Catholic Church Art , p. 8.
- ↑ Roman Catholic Church of the Assumption of Mary, Schönenwerd SO. Organ directory Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Retrieved August 5, 2019.
Coordinates: 47 ° 22 '19.7 " N , 8 ° 0' 23.8" E ; CH1903: 642899 / 246966