Upper Church (Bad Zurzach)
The Upper Church in Bad Zurzach is a listed former church that now serves as an exhibition and event location.
The simple building has a retracted polygonal choir over a former ossuary . The hall has a flat ceiling, the choir is raised by a few steps and is vaulted, the pilasters on the walls have stucco chapels.
history
The Upper Church was once a so-called Leutekirche. It was built right next to the Verena Minster . Folk priests were mentioned several times in the records in the 13th century; today's Upper Church comes from a later time. Its predecessor buildings fell victim to fires in 1294 and 1471, so that in 1347 and 1474 the church at that time had to be rededicated to "Our Lady". In 1517 the Bishop of Constance finally approved a new building. The monastery chapter and church members quickly agreed that the monastery should build the choir, while the church members should take care of the nave. A church in the late Gothic style was built with a pointed roof turret and a large Gothic window on the west side. Matthäus Merian's depiction of the location from 1642 bears witness to the exterior of the church at that time. At that time there was probably a Gothic winged altar in the choir area; the tabernacle was built into the northeast side. In the choir arch there was a Gothic crucifix that has now found its place on the north wall of the choir. The walls were painted with frescoes . These paintings were probably renewed in 1565, were later whitewashed, but have been partially preserved and exposed again. You can see a holy Sebastian and a crucifixion. In its early days, the church probably had colored windows, at least in part.
Ten years after the inauguration of the church, on August 24, 1529, the members of the Zurzach church decided to accept the Reformed doctrine, and on August 29 of the same year the first sermon according to the Zwinglian creed was held in the church . As a result, the altars and altarpieces were removed from the church, which was now used exclusively by the Reformed. But by the end of 1531, many residents became Catholic again. Zurzach was now an equal parish and the Upper Church was used as an equal church , but this led to numerous disputes. For example, there was a dispute about the re-installation of the crucifix in the choir arch and the installation of a baptismal font for the Reformed. The construction of a reformed church was planned from 1681, and on May 4, 1725, the reformed moved with their controversial baptismal font to the newly built Reformed church and left the church key to the Catholics for a purchase price of 2,000 guilders.
These now baroque the Gothic building. The roof turret was replaced in 1734 by the baroque tower that still exists today, and from 1762 the interior was decorated with stucco work by Lucius Gambs . In 1771 the sculptor Hartmann von Schönau created the two baroque side altars and a pulpit that was crowned with Moses . A little later, a free-standing high altar was added, which was surmounted by a crucifixion by the painter Spiller von Laufenburg. The pews and main altar were probably designed by Franz Ludwig Wind . The baroque process was completed around 1786.
In 1876, however, the canons' monastery was abolished and the Roman Catholic community celebrated its services in the collegiate church from then on. Since then, the Upper Church has only been used occasionally for church services and congregational meetings, gradually got into a bad condition and had basically become superfluous for the congregation. In the 1920s, the idea was to turn the church into a school. Alexander von Senger-Zuberbühler submitted a draft that provided for a connection between the Upper Church and the neighboring provost school house, but was not implemented. Further designs were requested from the architects Josef Erne from Zurich and Waldkirch from Zurzach. The convened building commission decided in 1932 in favor of Erne's proposal to accommodate four classrooms in the former church. But pastor's assistant FA Siegrist, who wanted to know how to preserve the monument, wrote numerous appeals to save the Upper Church from this redesign, and financial reasons also spoke against the implementation of Erne's proposal. After the decision was made in 1937 to build the school building on Langwiesstrasse, the plans for the reconstruction of the Upper Church were not pursued any further.
Instead, the Upper Church was to be rented to the Minet company as a furniture store. The establishment of a border guard account in the church was also discussed. In 1940 and 1941, the Upper Church was occupied with troops and used as a magazine.
The church, whose small lead-rimmed panes had apparently invited the schoolchildren in the neighboring provost building to throw targets, was already in a desperate state at this point, although Pastor Dr. Adolf Reimann had collected funds in 1935 to replace the windows of the church and thus contain the damage caused by the weather. This meant that it could also serve as a warehouse for the Zurzacher's possessions, which had to be removed from the attics as part of clearing out actions when fire bombing attacks were expected during the Second World War . The Zurzacher Jungwacht picked up these stocks in the houses and placed them in the church. Walter Edelmann, then a member of the Jungwacht, later recalled the furnishings in the converted church: “This still contained the seats and kneeling benches. I remember the two side altars well, the left one with the picture of Our Lady [sic!], Which now adorns the St. Mary's altar in the collegiate church, and the picture of Joseph going home above the altar on the epistle side. Both side altar structures were decorated with another picture, namely with the Apostle Peter on one side and Mary Magdalene on the other [...] Between the two side altars there was [...] the baptismal font, the lid of which was covered with a sculpture, the baptism of Jesus [sic!] in the Jordan was decorated. The high altar was enlivened to the left and right of the tabernacle by the silver figures of the apostles Peter, Paul, John and James. Above the altar in the middle [...] a temple-like structure rose on four pillars, the roof of which was crowned by a gilded pelican who fed its young with its own blood. " Edelmann also reports on the whereabouts of the works of art. The two side altars and the pulpit were sold to Feusisberg in 1938 and now adorned the church there. The baptismal font had been moved into the crypt . The four apostle figures from the high altar were still housed in the nave of the Upper Church for some time and are now part of the art treasure of the Verena Church. The gilded pelican had disappeared, the pews had been partially sawed, the high altar was "worthless". In addition, the stone floor of the church was torn up around 1943 because the underground had been examined.
Since September 1st, 1944 , was the 1600th anniversary of the death of the local saint Verena , the young Catholic team began thinking about how to celebrate this anniversary from 1943 onwards, and finally submitted an application to the Catholic Church Administration, the Upper Church as a venue for the performance of a festival. In return, the young team wanted to help restore the building to a usable state, at least inside, and to support the necessary collection of money. The application was successful and in 1944 the interior of the church was renovated at a cost of around 25,000 francs. A new belt floor was laid, lighting was installed, a choir curtain was attached and seating with folding chairs from Wisa-Gloria was procured. Linus Birchler , who accompanied the painting, demanded that the different epochs that had left their mark on the church be made visible. Therefore, the frescoes under the plaster were preserved, the red sandstone choir arch was exposed and the early Baroque painting above it was restored. Birchler also requested indirect lighting for the room to highlight the gambler stucco work. On August 27, 1944, the ceremony took place in the renovated church - without the originally planned festival, but with concerts and other contributions. This started the use of the Upper Church as an event room. In 1958/59 the church received double-glazed windows and electric heating, and in 1963 the exterior was renovated. In 1974 new seating was purchased. The crypt with the slogan "Hodie mihi cras tibi" was created by Pieter van de Cuylen transformed into a meditation room.
In the first few decades the church was mainly used for concerts, but in 1962 it was used for the first time as an exhibition space and was then eagerly used until its furnishings were changed again in 1989: in 1966, Pieter van de Cuylen attended the exhibition Das Kreuz in of contemporary art and in 1971 participated in an exhibition on the subject of "death" in the Upper Church. Buried under bomb debris in Berlin in 1943 , he had made a vow to donate his main religious work to a St. Mary's Church. When he learned that the Zurzacher Obere Kirche had once been a St. Mary's Church, he wanted to realize this plan here. He initially offered a window cycle for the Upper Church, but this was rejected for reasons of monument protection. The drafts for this cycle are now in Bad Zurzach, but are not exhibited in the Upper Church, in contrast to numerous paintings and sculptures that van de Cuylen donated to the Catholic community a year before his death and which are now part of a permanent exhibition can be seen on the walls of the Upper Church. After van de Cuylen's death, his widow gave her husband's entire artistic work to Zurzach. Another permanent exhibition with works by van de Cuylen was then set up in the Mauritiushof.
In 1996 the last renovation of the Upper Church took place. Among other things, it received a dehumidification zone and a new exterior paintwork, as well as moon-pane window glazing with outer insulating glass in the iron frames from the 18th century. A cloakroom and magazine extension was built on the south side. The main entrance was provided with a ramp. Three tombstones of canons on the outside were uncovered. Inside, among other things, the stucco decorations were restored, the indirect lighting was replaced by hanging lamps and the choir arch painting copied in 1944 and not originally painted was removed, and the sandstone imitations on the choir arch and the window frames were painted white again.
literature
- Walter Edelmann, The Upper Church of Zurzach. A cultural meeting place , o. O., ²2007
