Reformed Church of Bülach
The Reformed Church Bülach is located in the center of the old town of Bülach . With its predecessor buildings, it is one of the oldest churches in the entire Canton of Zurich .
history
A document from the year 811 mentions the church in Bülach for the first time and names St. Lawrence of Rome as the church patron . That is why his attribute, the Laurentius rust , still adorns the coat of arms of the political community and that is why the Catholic Trinity Church in Bülach has St. Laurentius as its second patron. The church was later owned by the St. Gallen monastery .
The Bülach church was the mother church of the entire Glatt valley in the Middle Ages . In 1044 the patronage of the church went to the cathedral monastery of Strasbourg , in 1188 to the lords of Tengen . Marquart von Baldegg inherited the patronage , which he sold to Zurich in 1463. The Reformation took place in Bülach through the removal of Pastor Ulrich Rollebutz in 1528. Johannes Haller, after whom an alley in the old town is named today, became the first Reformed pastor in Bülach. As a companion of Huldrych Zwingli , Johannes Haller died in the Second Kappel War in 1531.
Today the Reformed parish of Bülach is the second largest Evangelical Reformed parish in the canton of Zurich after that of Uster. In addition to Bülach, she also looks after the communities of Bachenbülach , Hochfelden , Winkel and Höri .
Building history of the church
Archaeological excavations from 1968 show an early medieval church around the year 650. The grave of a noble woman from the 7th century was found, which was located under the baptismal font at that time and was separated from all other graves found under the nave. The grave finds show that it must have been an Alemannic noblewoman of Christian faith, who can be assumed to have been the founder of the Bülach Church.
A second, high medieval church building with vestibule , apse and rectangular altar house is documented from the 9th century, as is a Romanesque hall church from the 10th century. During the Sempach War , the church was burned by the people of Zurich in 1386, and by the Confederates in 1444 during the Zurich War . The church was rebuilt by 1466 and received a square choir, a sacristy extension and a church tower .
After a city fire, today's church was built in the late Gothic style between 1508 and 1510 . The tower received a pyramid roof. In 1678 the nave was enlarged to its present size and at the same time its current roof structure was installed. In the years 1870/1871 the church was redesigned in a neo-Gothic style by Josef Utzinger . The spire was renovated in 1999 and the interior of the church in 2002.
Building description
The reformed church stands on a small hill in the center of the old town. It is a single-nave church in neo-Gothic style with a polygonal closed choir . The church tower is attached to the left of the choir.
Church tower and bells
The tower was built between 1508 and 1510. In the years 1838 to 1839 it received its present form. 181 steps lead from the nave to the gallery of the church tower. The pointed roof is crowned by a weather vane . The tower is 71 meters high and defines the cityscape of Bülach from all sides. The clock and striking mechanism were installed in 1901 and had to be wound by hand every day until 1970. Today the tower clock receives the time signal from Frankfurt . In 2012 the purely mechanical original state of the movement was restored. Since then, the watch has been kept precisely timed by a newly developed hand synchronization system.
In 1893 the bell tower received its current bell . The bells were cast by the company Keller, Unterstrass . In addition to the bells from 1893, the church tower also houses the Silberglöggli , a 25 kg bell from 1500, which was then consecrated to Mary , the Mother of God . This bell is the only one that is still rung by hand and only rings twice a year: on New Year's Eve and on August 1st .
| number | Weight | volume | dedication |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3769 kg | B. | Peace bell |
| 2 | 1917 kg | d | Emergency bell |
| 3 | 1070 kg | f | Bedtime bell |
| 4th | 466 kg | b | Death knell |
| 5 | 25 kg | e | Silberglöggli |
Interior and artistic equipment
In 1620 the church received a Renaissance - pulpit , which is housed in the cultural archive of the city Bülach today. In 1678 a first gallery was built into the church as well as the baptismal font made by the stonemason Casper Michel from Zurich. When the church was rebuilt in 1870–1871, two side galleries were built and the wooden ceiling of the church was stuccoed . The Bülach painter Jean Kern decorated the church with four wall paintings in 1924, which depict biblical scenes.
Between 1968 and 1970 the church was renovated. The pulpit and the paintings from 1924 were removed here. The galleries were replaced by today's exposed concrete fittings and the ceiling in the nave was removed so that the roof structure from the 17th century was visible. In 1970 the glass windows were installed in the choir. In the choir is a "baptismal tree" created by the artist Andreas Widmer. The design of the tree takes up the tree element of the church windows and the Gothic tracery.
Choir window
The colored glass windows in the church choir were made by the artist Hans Affeltranger . The windows address the following:
- The Creation (color yellow): above the light source, including the sun, moon and stars and flowers, birds and fish. The creative process is indicated symbolically.
- The Fall of Man (basic color red): Apples and the snake indicate the fall of Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis.
- The story of Bethlehem (basic color purple): Christmas is symbolically represented with the birth of Jesus Christ.
- Defeat and death (basic color blue): Good Friday and the Passion of Jesus Christ are symbolically indicated.
- Hope (basic color green): the city of Jerusalem is shown above, below the tree of life , below fish (symbols of the Christian man) swimming in the clear water.
The creation
The fall of man
The story of Bethlehem
Defeat and death
The hope
Big organ and choir organ
The church received its first organ in 1899. Carl Theodor Kuhn's pneumatic instrument was in the church's choir. In 1970 the present organ was installed in the gallery. The company Manufacture d'Orgues Muhleisen from Strasbourg created the instrument. In contrast to many other organs in the region, it is not in the north German style, but rather in the Alsatian-French style. The organ has 36 sounding registers on three manuals and a pedal . The entire work contains around 2500 pipes . The registry and the action mechanism are electric. The disposition is as follows:
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In 2013, Peter Meier Orgelbau GmbH, Rheinfelden, created a choir organ with nine registers for the Reformed Church in Bülach. It is mobile and consists of three parts: main housing, upper manual, sub-bass housing. The instrument has 504 pipes, 500 of which are ringing and four are silent pipes in the prospectus. In the prospectus the principal is 8 ′. The second manual can be transposed by moving the keyboard (440/415 Hz), switched on with the shut-off valve . The pipes of the hollow flute 8 'are supplied with less wind via a second loop , so that in interaction with the principal 8' they produce a slightly floating sound. The flute 8 'in the pedal is a transmission of the hollow flute 8' into the pedal. This register can also be played without a coupled sub-bass. The registers Principal 8 ′, Octave 4 ′, Nasat 2 2 ⁄ 3 ′ and Regal 8 ′ are divided into bass / treble at the division point c 1 / c sharp 1 .
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- Coupling: I / P
literature
- Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. Chur 1980.
- Evangelical Reformed Church Bülach (ed.): Our Church. Flyer.
- Evangelical Reformed Church Bülach (ed.): The bells. Flyer.
- Evangelical Reformed Church Bülach (ed.): Our organ. Flyer.
- Evangelical Reformed Church Bülach (ed.): Baptismal font and baptismal tree. Flyer.
- Evangelical Reformed Church Bülach (ed.): Festive concert for the organ positive inauguration. Flyer. Bülach 2013.
Web links
- Ref. Kirche Bülach on the website of the Reformed parish
- Bells on youtube
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bischöfliches Ordinariat Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese Chur P. 194
- ↑ Bischöfliches Ordinariat Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese Chur P. 194.
- ↑ Evangelical Reformed Church Bülach (ed.): Our Church. P. 2.
- ^ Website of the Reformed Church in Bülach. Retrieved August 15, 2013.
- ↑ Website of the anniversary exhibition "brought to light - 1200 years of Bülach church" ( Memento from September 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Evangelical Reformed Church Bülach (ed.): Our Church. P. 2.
- ^ D: Evangelical Reformed Church Bülach (ed.): Our Church. P. 2.
- ↑ Evangelical Reformed Church Bülach (ed.): Our Church. Pp. 3-4. And website of the Reformed Church in Bülach. Retrieved July 25, 2013.
- ↑ Evangelical Reformed Church Bülach (ed.): Our Church. Pp. 3-4.
- ↑ Evangelical Reformed Church Bülach (ed.): Our Church. S. 3. And: Evangelical Reformed Church Bülach (ed.): The bells. P. 2.
- ^ Evangelical Reformed Church Bülach (ed.): The bells. P. 4. And parish website, Bells section . Retrieved July 25, 2013.
- ↑ Evangelical Reformed Church Bülach (ed.): Our Church. Pp. 2-3.
- ^ Evangelical Reformed Church in Bülach (ed.): Taufstein and Taufbaum. Pp. 2-3.
- ^ Website of the parish, section church window . Retrieved July 25, 2013.
- ↑ Brief description on the website of Orgelbau Kuhn, accessed on January 7, 2014.
- ^ Evangelical Reformed Church in Bülach (ed.): Our organ.
- ^ Choir organ in Bülach, Reformed Church , accessed on January 16, 2014.
- ^ Festive concert for the organ positive inauguration. Flyer dated December 8, 2013
Coordinates: 47 ° 31 '1.5 " N , 8 ° 32' 27" E ; CH1903: 683 020 / 263508