St. Francis (Wetzikon)
The Church of St. Francis is the older of the two Roman Catholic parish churches in Wetzikon in the Zurich Oberland . It is located at Messikommerstrasse 14 near the Wetzikon train station.
history
History and naming
The Christian faith first came to the region of today's Zurich Oberland through the Romans . In the Roman fort in Irgenhausen am Pfäffikersee , the foundations of the region's first Christian church can still be seen today. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Christian faith came a second time by the monks Gallus and Columban in the Eastern Switzerland . In a document from the year 857, a Rappolt Church is mentioned, which is said to have stood near Wetzikon or Bäretswil , but is later no longer mentioned under this name. The first church building in Wetzikon burned down in 1320. In 1330 a new building took place. The collature of this medieval church in Wetzikon, including the castle, was a fiefdom of the St. Gallen Monastery , which was passed on to different families and finally passed to Zurich in 1563 . After the Reformation in Zurich in 1524, Catholic worship was banned in what is now the Canton of Zurich, which is why the church in Wetzikon was henceforth used for Reformed worship. In 1711–1713, today's Reformed Church was built.
Only the Edict of Tolerance from 1807 allowed the immigrant Catholics to celebrate Catholic services again, but initially only in the city of Zurich. When the modern Confederation was founded in 1848, freedom of religion and freedom of residence was enshrined in the constitution , so that Catholic communities could be established throughout the Canton of Zurich. As a result of the industrialization that created numerous jobs in the Zurich Oberland , people from Catholic areas in Central and Eastern Switzerland, but also from neighboring countries, moved to the region. In June 1866 , the first Holy Mass since the Reformation was celebrated in the Zurich Oberland in the Pilgersteg inn , which was between Dürnten and Rüti . The Capuchin Fathers of the Rapperswil Monastery had committed themselves to the diocese of Chur to take over pastoral care in the Zurich Oberland. The Catholics who immigrated at that time were mostly poor and lived scattered throughout the region, which made it difficult to establish a Catholic community. Other Catholic mission stations and later parishes in the region were: Männedorf (1864), Wald (1869), Ritterhaus Bubikon (1873), Uster (1876) and Tann-Rüti (1879). The majority of Catholics from the western part of Wetzikon visited the parish of Uster until the founding of the Wetzikon parish.
St. Francis of Assisi , who died in 1226 , was particularly venerated by parts of the Catholic working class. Some of the Catholic churches that were built in the 1920s were consecrated to St. Francis, such as the Catholic Church of Zurich-Wollishofen or the Franziskus Church of Wetzikon.
Development and construction history
Around 1890 Wetzikon counted around 1000 Catholics who had moved here, so that the establishment of its own mission station became necessary. On May 4, 1890, the first holy mass in Wetzikon since the Reformation took place in a shed in the rear building at Freihof Robenhausen on the hayloft of a former horse stable. In a letter dated October 31, 1890, the Catholics of Wetzikon asked the Bishop of Chur , Johannes Fidelis Battaglia , to organize a public collection for the construction of a church in Wetzikon, which the bishop arranged for on Christmas of the same year. On February 9, 1892, the church building association Wetzikon with its seat in the catholic town of Rapperswil was founded. Land purchases on the Guldisloo could be notarized on April 1, 1892. On June 5th, the Wetzikon municipal council issued the building permit for a rectory with a prayer hall. In 1893 the rectory with prayer room was built on the Guldisloo at today's Messikommerstrasse 14. The consecration took place on August 13th. In the following years, the building debts were paid off through begging letter campaigns and the interior furnishings of the prayer room were completed. In the years 1907–1912 a lottery was carried out in the canton of Uri , the proceeds of which were intended to provide the financial basis for building a church in Wetzikon. When the number of Catholics in Wetzikon decreased again during the First World War , the desire to build a church was suspended for the duration of the war.
On July 15, 1923, the groundbreaking ceremony took place for the construction of the St. Franziskuskirche, which was built according to plans by the architect Joseph Steiner . The architect Joseph Steiner also used this architectural style in other church buildings of this time, such as the church in Hinwil, Wald, St. Franziskus Zurich-Wollishofen , Herz Jesu Zurich-Wiedikon or St. Petrus Embrach . The sgraffito pictures on the outer choir wall were made free of charge by the site manager Huttelmayer.
On October 5th the church was inaugurated by Archbishop Raymund Netzhammer from Einsiedeln Abbey . In the following years the church was gradually equipped. In 1925 the church received side altars and statues of St. Anthony , St. Louis and St. Elisabeth . The wooden stucco was created by Alfons Noflauer from Ortisei . The Stations of the Cross followed in 1936 . In 1947 the church was given a pulpit and in 1949 a baptismal font made of dark Gastione granite. In 1976, stained glass windows were installed in the church, depicting the eight bliss of the Sermon on the Mount . In 2001 a renovation took place, in the years 2013-2014 a complete renovation of the church.
Building description
St. Francis is a neo - Romanesque three-aisled basilica . The campanile-like bell tower over a square floor plan rises almost flush from the edge of the simple facade of the church, it is covered with a modified rhombic roof. Round-arched triplet windows open on each side of the bell chamber .
inner space
The central nave of the church has a wooden coffered ceiling . From 2013 to 2014, the interior was renovated from a historical preservation point of view, so that the character of the church designed by Joseph Steiner has been preserved. Only the ceiling lights indicate the latest renovation measures. The church is a longitudinal building with two lower aisles, which are separated from the main room by rows of columns. The choir has moved in and separated from the main room by several steps. The modern folk altar is part of the choir furnishings from earlier times.
Stained glass window
The 12 colored windows from 1965 tell the life and work of the church patron, St. Francis. The colors of the glass windows are assigned the following meanings: white is supposed to mean peace, joy and victory, blue is God's grace , color red indicates the work of the Holy Spirit , green symbolizes the love and mercy of God. The first window deals with the Trinity vision of St. Brother Klaus . The second window shows a red flaming heart. The third window by the staircase is dedicated to St. Cecilia , the patroness of church music. The sword and the palm of victory on the window refer to their martyrdom . The fourth window shows the poinsettia, the fifth window deals with the celebration of the Eucharist . The three flames shown refer to the love of the triune God. The green wreath is a symbol of the life that Jesus made possible for all believers through his death and that is celebrated in the Eucharist. The bread basket and fish are reminiscent of the multiplication of bread in the Bible. The sixth window is dedicated to Easter . The Easter lamb in the green and red circle refers to Christ, the Lamb of God. The Francis window shows the stigmatization of Francis of Assisi. The world map refers to the missionary activity of the Franciscan Order. The eighth window is dedicated to St. Catherine of Siena . As a Dominican , she also received the five stigmata. The green wreath of thorns refers to the veneration of St. Catherine of the Passion of Christ. The ninth window is the theme of God's reconciliation with man, symbolized by the dove from Noah's ark with the green olive branch. The tenth window is dedicated to Pentecost . The eleventh window shows an allegory of mercy. The last window is dedicated to all the persecuted. The symbol of injustice is the out of tune Libra, the persecution is indicated by the chain with the handcuffs.
organ
In 1937 the church received its first large organ with 20 stops, which was built by the Späth brothers , Rapperswil. The instrument was inaugurated on February 28th. In 1975 the first organ was replaced by the current instrument. The new organ with 1654 pipes and 25 sounding registers was built by Mönch & Söhne , Ueberlingen on Lake Constance. The expertise came from Siegfried Hildenbrand, cathedral organist of St. Gallen. The instrument has a mechanical action mechanism, an electrical registry and six mechanical composition combinations. The organ was consecrated on Easter Monday, March 31, 1975.
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- Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
Bells
In 1928 the Bishop of Chur, Georg Schmid von Grüneck donated a small steel bell to the church. In the spring of 1956, a bell commission commissioned today's five-part chime at the Erding bell foundry near Munich, which was inaugurated on October 7, 1956 at the church's patronage festival. The bells have a total weight of 8796 kg.
| number | Weight | volume | dedication |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3730 kg | a 0 | Holy Spirit |
| 2 | 1936 kg | c 1 | Mother of God |
| 3 | 1438 kg | d 1 | Francis |
| 4th | 1160 kg | e 1 | St. Joseph |
| 5 | 712 kg | g 1 | Guardian Angel |
The community
The parish of Wetzikon is also responsible for sea trenches . With its 7,131 members (as of 2017), it is one of the larger parishes in the Canton of Zurich. The parish of Wetzikon, which also includes the parish of Gossau, includes the Church of St. Franziskus, the Church of the Holy Spirit in Wetzikon-Kempten and the Church of Maria Krönung in Gossau. With 9,551 members (as of 2017), the Catholic parish of Wetzikon is one of the largest Catholic parishes in the canton of Zurich.
Trivia
In 1929, the military pilot Hans Suter flew too low over the Franziskuskirche. His plane damaged the tower cross so that it was now crooked. The military department paid the repair costs of CHF 840.
literature
- Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. Chur 1980.
- Catholic parish Wetzikon (ed.): 100 years of the Catholic parish of Wetzikon 1890–1990. Your story - your development from the foundation to the present. Wetzikon 1990.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Liselotte Forster: 70 years as a Catholic in Bäretswil 1940-2010. Becoming and growing a diaspora parish in the Zurich Oberland. Bäretswil 2010. p. 12.
- ↑ Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. P. 265.
- ↑ Liselotte Forster: 70 years as a Catholic in Bäretswil 1940–2010. Becoming and growing a diaspora parish in the Zurich Oberland. Bäretswil 2010. pp. 12-14.
- ↑ Catholic parish Wetzikon (ed.): 100 years of the Catholic parish of Wetzikon 1890–1990. Your story - your development from the foundation to the present. P. 15.
- ↑ Catholic parish Wetzikon (ed.): 100 years of the Catholic parish of Wetzikon 1890–1990. Your story - your development from the foundation to the present. P. 17.
- ↑ Catholic parish Wetzikon (ed.): 100 years of the Catholic parish of Wetzikon 1890–1990. Your story - your development from the foundation to the present. P. 20.
- ↑ a b c d e Wetzipedia, section St. Franziskuskirche. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
- ^ Website of the parish. Section start of the renovation work on the Church of St. Franziskus Wetzikon . ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
- ↑ Pastor Gamma, in: Katholische Kirchgemeinde Wetzikon (ed.): 100 Years of the Catholic Parish Wetzikon 1890–1990. Your story - your development from the foundation to the present. Pp. 68-69.
- ↑ Bell data on YouTube. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
- ↑ Catholic Church of the Canton of Zurich (Ed.): Annual Report 2017 . P. 84.
Coordinates: 47 ° 19 '24.05 " N , 8 ° 47' 24.5" E ; CH1903: 702167 / 242266