St. Anton (Wettingen)

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St. Anton
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The parish church of St. Anton was built in the years 1952–1954 in the Wettinger Langenstein district and, together with the adjacent Forum St. Anton, is the center of the parish of St. Anton , which belongs to the Roman Catholic parish of Wettingen.

prehistory

At first there was only the parish of St. Sebastian with the village church in Wettingen . As a result of industrialization, Wettingen was confronted with a rapidly increasing population, with which the number of parishioners also rose sharply. Already after the First World War there were ideas to divide the parish and in 1923 plans arose to merge the western part of Wettingen with the Baden quarters on the right of the Limmat into one parish. This did not happen, however, because the Baden and Ennetbaden Catholics decided to build a church in Ennetbaden and the Wettingers had to look for their own solution. That is why a church building association was founded in 1932 in the Langenstein and Alteburg districts. At that time around 1,300 Catholics lived in these quarters. After the parish assembly rejected the purchase of land near the Winkelried hotel, the church building association bought a plot of land on today's Zentralstrasse that was later expanded. In 1948 the association handed over the property and its assets to the parish in order to enable them to rebuild the church. On July 13, 1952, the building site was consecrated and on July 18, 1954 the church was consecrated by the Bishop of Basel, Franziskus von Streng .

Church building

architecture

The Zurich architect Karl Higi emerged as the winner of the project competition and so the church, which was not undisputed due to its modernity, was built according to his plans. The building site was consecrated on July 13, 1952. The main building material used was concrete. The church is designed as a church on the way, in which the architecture aims to lead the believers to the choir, the place of the Eucharist. The church building is characterized by its clear forms, the chancel clearly separated from the nave and the high tower that protrudes far beyond the surrounding houses in the quarter. The church tower has a height of 36.5 m, its floor area is 3.2 m × 4.5 m and it measures 2.7 m × 4 m at the top.

Artistic equipment

Even more violent disputes than the modern architecture of the church were about the artistic furnishings, especially the abstract mural by Ferdinand Gehr . It was even covered with a curtain for the consecration on July 18, 1954, as Franziskus von Streng , the then Bishop of Basel, made the consecration dependent on the covering of the mural. The curtain stayed in front of the mural until 1960. Instead of this curtain, six large tapestries were made, which were designed by Armin Bruggisser , Hans Stocker , Willi Helbling and Ferdinand Gehr and which thematically match the different times of the church year and are changed accordingly. The frame was painted by Ferdinand Gehr, whereby the original controversial mural was destroyed.

Some old works of art were purchased from the art trade to decorate the church and the attached Antonius Chapel.

  • The wooden carved and colored crucifix was mounted on a new cross. The crucifix was made around 1700. The body shown is 108 cm high and is covered with a viscous loincloth. The head is directed vertically upwards over the left shoulder.
  • The standing Mary with child , carved from linden wood , is hollow on the back. It has been redesigned, part of the old silver and blue frame and the primer has been preserved. It is stylistically attributable to the Silesian late Gothic and is dated to around 1470. The figure shows the standing Mother of God with a crown, carrying an apple in her right hand and the baby Jesus on her left arm. He grabs Maria's cheek with one hand and the apple with the other.
  • The carved Pietà from Swiss stone pine still has the original color. The back is not formed and the left hand of the Jesus figure is missing. It has a height of 75 cm and is stylistically post-Gothic and is dated to around 1600.

In addition, three carved figures of St. Anthony of Padua were purchased. The Stations of the Cross hanging in the church today were created by Armin Bruggisser between 1985 and 1987.

Bells

There are five bells hanging in the church tower, which were cast by Rüetschi in Aarau on August 25, 1955 and raised on October 31, 1955:

  • Christ the king bell, cis, 2196 kg
  • Angelus bell, dis, 1446 kg
  • Antonius bell, f sharp, 898 kg
  • Brother claw bell, g sharp, 628 kg
  • St. Bernhard bell, h, 358 kg

literature

  • Peter Hoegger; The district of Baden II, the rural communities of the Limmat Valley, the Surb Valley, the Aare Valley, the lower Reuss Valley and the Fahr Monastery , Volume 7 of the series Kunstdenkmäler des Kanton Aargau , Wiese Verlag Basel ISBN 3-909164-44-7 pages 204-206
  • Ortsbürgergemeinde Wettingen (Hrsg.): History of the community Wettingen. Baden, 1978.
  • Bruno Meier , Fabian Egloff, Rudi Sommerhalder , Karl Frey: Wettingen. From monastery village to garden city. Editor; Wettingen municipality 2001 pages 144–147
  • Pastoral care team St. Anton (Ed.): St. Anton Wettingen (Peda art guide no.162 , ISBN 3-89643-1684 )
  • Return, Ruth: One parish, two parishes. Catholic Church History Wettingen. Wettingen 2017.

Web links

Commons : St. Anton Wettingen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Old HP of the parish ( Memento from December 5, 2004 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 47 ° 28 '4.7 "  N , 8 ° 19' 4.3"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred sixty-six thousand two hundred and eighty-eight  /  257 838