Reformed church Gontenschwil

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Reformed church Gontenschwil
Aerial view of the church

The Reformed Church of Gontenschwil is the Reformed village church of the Aargau community of Gontenschwil in Switzerland .

history

The first church in Gontenschwils must have been built in the last quarter of the 13th century. This conclusion results from a tax register from 1275, in which all churches in the region are recorded, but Gontenschwil is not mentioned, and a document from 1295 in which the church is mentioned for the first time. At that time it was a subsidiary church of Pfeffikon . When Aargau was conquered by the Confederates in 1415, the area of ​​the parish between Lucerne and Bern was divided into two lords, which initially had no ecclesiastical effects. In 1498 the village got its own chaplain and thus more independence. A steeple was built on the north side of the church in the same year.

From 1528 the church served the Reformed denomination. Gontenschwil had become an independent parish from Pfeffikon, but the right to choose the pastor remained with the monastery in the Catholic Beromünster , the collator of Pfeffikon and Gontenschwil. This unusual legal relationship only ended in 1853 with the replacement of the Kollatur by the Canton of Aargau. As the church became more and more dilapidated, it was demolished in 1622 and a new one was built in the same place. The old tower and part of the north wall were preserved. A renovation took place for the last time in 2008/09.

building

The building is built in the late Gothic style and stands in the middle of the cemetery. A rectangular nave with a slightly drawn-in choir closed on three sides form the floor plan. A hipped roof stretches over it . The church tower is placed on the north side of the ship. On the south side of the nave and on the sloping sides of the choir, the windows have round arches, otherwise they are pointed arches. All windows have simple tracery .

The interior is largely unadorned. In the western third of the room there is a gallery built on two columns ; there is the organ made in 1924 , the prospectus of which was partly taken over from its predecessor. The choir adjoins the nave without a bow and is slightly raised. The glass windows made by Hans Ulrich Fisch in 1622 and donated by the authorities at the time have been preserved and are now a listed building. The transfiguration of Christ, the coats of arms of the cities of Bern and Lenzburg and the family coats of arms Freudenreich, Hilfiker, Hünerwadel, Kull and Spengler are shown.

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. 194-198 .

Web links


Coordinates: 47 ° 16 '18.5 "  N , 8 ° 8' 42.5"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred fifty-three thousand four hundred sixty-three  /  235896