Parish Church of St. Vitus (Merenschwand)
The parish church of St. Vitus is the Roman Catholic parish church of Merenschwand in the canton of Aargau . The listed building in the village center is a cultural asset of national importance . Romanesque foundations date from the 12th century, the choir in Gothic style dating from around 1500. The dominant are neo-Gothic style elements, the result of of August Hardegger carried out reconstruction in the 1890s.
history
A church in Merenschwand was first mentioned in documents in 1245, the patronage of St. Vitus (Veit) was first mentioned in 1410. The Romanesque foundation walls of the church tower , however, suggest that the building dates back to at least the 12th century. The church's collators were initially the Counts of Homberg , and from 1293 the Lords of Hünenberg . In 1393 the church set was sold to the Kappel monastery , and in 1531 to the monastery in the courtyard in Lucerne .
Between 1497 and 1507 the choir was rebuilt, a reconstruction took place in the years of 1516/17 nave instead. In 1531 troops from Reformed Bern caused damage to the church during the Second Kappel War . After the restoration work (Bern made financial reparation under the conditions of the Second Kappel Peaceful Peace ), the auxiliary bishop of Constance consecrated the church on October 12, 1532. Heinrich Dieffolt, a picture carver from Feldkirch , made a new altar for Merenschwand in 1587. However, this was destroyed by an angry crowd on the way to Zurich . Only the prompt apology of the Zurich Council and adequate compensation prevented the sectarian conflict from escalating. In 1686 the relics of the catacomb saint Vincent were transferred from Rome to Merenschwand and a chapel was added for this purpose; however, a pilgrimage never developed.
In 1727/28 the church was expanded due to the increase in population, with the city of Lucerne donating part of the building material. But even this extension did not meet the requirements for a while, so that in 1897 the decision was made to build a new larger nave and to raise the church tower. According to plans by the architect August Hardegger , the church was given its current, largely neo-Gothic appearance. Leonhard Haas , the Bishop of Basel , inaugurated it on May 16, 1899. The Landesmuseum Zürich acquired a large part of the old furnishings.
Building
The church, together with the chaplain from the 15th century and the rectory built in 1925/26, form a group of buildings on the south side of the cemetery. During the renovation and new construction from 1897 to 1899, Hardegger added a semi-cylindrical stair tower to the church tower and added Romanesque sound holes , a higher and wider tower roof and a ridge turret . The middle nave of the nave , which is wider and higher than the choir, is flanked by low side aisles with flat monopitch roofs. The south aisle is interrupted by the Vinzenkapelle, which protrudes like a choir, and adjoins the sacristy . A three-axis vestibule, a main window and a gable rosette structure the west facade. At the southern corner of the protruding west facade, a second stair tower rises up.
The central nave of the nave, which has five bays , is supported by wide, pointed arcades on octagonal pillars. The smooth high walls of the central nave are broken through by small windows, while the wooden ceiling is trapezoidal. Arcade-like arches support the flat-roofed aisles. The choir is two axes deep; To the northeast, southeast and south, two-part masserk windows open . Eight right-angled isosceles triangles, a square and ten diamonds form the pattern of the star vault of the choir. The ground floor of the church tower (with a barrel vault ) once contained the sacristy and archive of the Merenschwand office. Two spiral staircases (one inside and one in the attached stair tower) lead to the bell room. Five bells from the 15th to the early 18th centuries once hung there. After the biggest bell rang in 1887, the Aarau foundry H. Rüetschi made a new bell. An old bell hangs in the roof of the St. Vincent's Chapel, which was probably made around 1687/88.
literature
- Georg Germann: The art monuments of the canton Aargau . Ed .: Society for Swiss Art History . Volume V, Muri District. Birkhäuser, Basel 1967, p. 157-169 .
Web links
- Website of the parish of Merenschwand
- Parish church of St. Vitus (Merenschwand) in the inventory of the canton of Aargau
Coordinates: 47 ° 15 '36.5 " N , 8 ° 22' 32.7" E ; CH1903: six hundred seventy thousand nine hundred and twenty-seven / 234783