Reformed Church Brittnau

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Brittnau church with stork's nest
Aerial view of the Brittnau church

The Reformed Church Brittnau is the Reformed village church in the Aargau municipality of Brittnau in the canton of Aargau .

history

Excavations on the occasion of the renovation in 1968 revealed that the oldest parts of the original church date from the 10th or 11th century. The church, presumably donated by the Frohburgers , was consecrated to St. Verena and consisted of a trapezoidal hall with a side length of 9.5 meters and a width of 5 or 6 meters. In the 12./13. In the 19th century the nave was extended to the west and a choir was added on the east side , which was replaced by a larger one in the 14th century. The village fire of July 5, 1547 destroyed the church except for a small part of the north wall.

The reconstruction took several decades and could only be completed in 1585 with the completion of the church tower . In 1596 the Brittnau family bought a bell from the Kulm Church . The church was rebuilt in 1641, with the nave and choir given their current layout. During the interior and exterior renovation between 1881 and 1884 and 1905/1906, a neo-Gothic porch was built, which was demolished again during the renovation in 1968. In 1960 four new bells from the H. Rüetschi foundry in Aarau were raised in the church tower.

building

The church, built in the late Gothic style, stands on the eastern edge of the village center on Langnauerstrasse. The wall surfaces are smoothly plastered, the windows have pointed arches . A choir closed on three sides adjoins the nave . Above the southern side entrance there is a Bernese coat of arms in the form of a bas-relief. The church tower is built on the north side of the choir and has a steep gable roof .

The choir is raised by one step and separated from the nave by a sandstone arch, which means that the pre-Reformation floor plan was retained in the new building. The polygonal pulpit , carved from oak, dates from 1641 and is attached to the corner of the left nave wall and the round arch. The grave slab of Verena von Büttikon on the southern pillar of the choir arch bears the year 1520. A Büttiker coat of arms disk comes from the same year, and in 1702 another coat of arms was added by Johann Rudolf Matthey, the bailiff of Aarburg .

literature

  • Michael Stettler: The art monuments of the canton of Aargau . Ed .: Society for Swiss Art History . Volume I: The districts of Aarau, Kulm, Zofingen. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1948, p. 266-269 .

Web links

Commons : Reformed Church Brittnau  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files


Coordinates: 47 ° 15 '31.7 "  N , 7 ° 56' 53"  E ; CH1903:  638558  /  234336