Reformed Church Wohlen

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Reformed Church Wohlen

The Reformed Church Wohlen is a Reformed church building in Wohlen in the Swiss canton of Aargau . It was built in 1926 and is slightly elevated on a hill diagonally across from Wohlen station . The Reformed Parish of Wohlen also includes the surrounding towns of Anglikon , Büttikon , Hilfikon , Uezwil , Villmergen (with a branch church) and Waltenschwil ; it is part of the Lenzburg deanery of the Reformed Church in Aargau .

history

From 1523 Wohlen experienced a brief reformatory phase and in May 1529 joined the new denomination as a whole. However, after the defeat of the Reformed towns in the Second Kappel War , the villages in the northern Free Offices were recatholized in November 1531 in accordance with the provisions of the Second Kappel Peaceful Peace . Wohlen was then exclusively Roman Catholic for around three centuries . Members of the Reformed denomination did not settle again until the beginning of the 19th century, when the canton of Aargau guaranteed freedom of religion by constitution and industrialization began. In the district capital of Bremgarten , a Reformed parish was established in 1845, to which Wohlen also belonged. The Bremgarten pastor first gave a sermon in Wohlen in 1879.

Especially after the turn of the century, the number of Reformed people in Wohlen rose rapidly, so that the building of their own church was considered. The Bettags collection from 1905 formed the basis for the building fund, and the Reformed Church Building Association was established in 1911. In 1916, the Wohler doctor Roman Müller ceded Hübelacker at the train station as a building site, three years later the parish of Bremgarten agreed to the construction of a second church and agreed to leave it free if it became independent. A construction project was already in place in 1917, but the start of construction was delayed until June 20, 1925 due to cost increases. The church was consecrated on September 12, 1926. In 1956, the Wohlen von Bremgarten parish went into business for itself, and one in 1974/75 extensive renovation of the church.

Church building

The architect of the church building was Emil Schäfer from Zurich, who also designed the Reformed churches in Cham , Dietikon and Horn TG . The exterior of the church has the strict, straightforward shape of a cuboid. The church tower, which contains the sacristy , the technical equipment and a room for the pastor, was relatively low compared to the rest of the building. The reason for this were fears that the ground could have been loosened by the nearby railway line and a larger tower would not be stable enough.

An organ fund independent of the building fund acquired a Goll organ. For financial reasons and to avoid further delays in the start of construction, the bells and tower clock were initially not installed . However, the reformed parish of Brugg provided a surplus bell from 1670. The tower clock was finally installed in 1933, as was the bell foundry H. Rüetschi in Aarau .

After several years of planning, the church was extensively renovated from September 1974 to March 1975. A vestibule was added to the entrance and the interior was completely renewed (organ, demonstration facilities, baptismal and communion tables, lighting, heating and seating). The building shell and the tower remained unchanged, as did the roof and the galleries. The church windows have had stained glass since 1991.

literature

  • Anne-Marie Dubler , Jean-Jacques Siegrist : Wohlen - History of law, economy and population of an early industrialized community in Aargau . In: Argovia, annual journal of the Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau . tape 86 . Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau 1975, ISBN 3-7941-1367-5 , p. 615-617 .
  • Werner Lehmann: Construction of the church in Wohlen . In: The Sigrist . 2003.

Web links


Coordinates: 47 ° 20 '54.2 "  N , 8 ° 16' 15.5"  E ; CH1903:  662 894  /  244505