St. Georg (Küsnacht)

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St. Georg in Küsnacht from the east
inner space
Interior with a view of the organ

The Roman Catholic Church of St. Georg in Küsnacht is a neo-Romanesque parish church in the canton of Zurich .

History and patronage

Already in 1188 Pope Clement III. mentioned first church building in Küsnacht, today's Reformed Church Küsnacht , was consecrated to St. George before the Reformation .

The fact that the church in Küsnacht was first mentioned by a Pope suggests that it must have been a larger church building with considerable possessions as early as the 12th century. From the 13th century possessed Marien - and Georg altar a national broadcast of the Church, so that the city of Zurich the Good Friday as Prozessionsgtag firmly put to Küsnachter church. Until the ban on processions in 1524, the Küsnacht church remained a popular place of pilgrimage and procession. After the Reformation in Zurich in 1525, the Catholic cult was banned in the Zurich subject areas.

The Edict of Tolerance of 1807 and the freedom of establishment of the Helvetic Republic and later of the Swiss federal state made it possible for Catholics from eastern and central Switzerland and from neighboring countries to settle in the canton of Zurich and for Catholic services to take place. The Catholics of Küsnacht were looked after from 1894 by the Liebfrauenkirche , the oldest right bank Catholic parish in the city. In 1898, however, Küsnacht was added to the parish of St. Stephan Männedorf. The first Catholic mass on Küsnachter Boden since the Reformation took place on the first Advent of the same year, in the hall of the Hotel Falken on Dorfstrasse . Also in 1898, the building plot on the Heslibach for today's St. Georg Church was bought. On August 25, 1901, a first mass was celebrated in the shell of the rectory . Then the construction of the St. Georg Church began according to plans by Erwin Brunner and Max Meckel . On October 4, 1903, the church was consecrated, Küsnacht was raised to an independent parish and thus separated from the mother parish of St. Stephan Männedorf. Only 84 years later, after extensive renovation, the St. Georg Church was consecrated by the Bishop of Chur , Johannes Vonderach , in 1987. The public law recognition of the Catholic Church in the canton of Zurich in 1963 made it easier for the parishes to secure their finances. In 1971 the parish of St. Georg was able to open its own parish center. However, this was completely destroyed in a major fire on Whit Saturday 1994. A new building followed later.

Together with the parish of St. Agnes in Erlenbach, the parish of St. Georg in Küsnacht forms the Roman Catholic parish of Küsnacht-Erlenbach. With its 5'036 members (as of 2017) it is one of the larger Catholic parishes in the canton of Zurich.

Exterior

The massive church building stands on the corner of Kirchstrasse / Bahnweg not far from the train station and, with its neo-Romanesque design, is reminiscent of the Rhenish Romanesque . The facades of the basilica are provided with arched windows and a blind arch frieze . The impression is dominated by the bell tower with bi-porous windows and tent roof and the adjoining crossing tower . A flight of stairs leads to the column portal on the main façade, below which is the access to the crypt . The church tower received its first bell in 1903. It was a rented Ave bell that was in service until 1922. In 1922 the new bells for the church in Aarau were made by the H. Rüetschi foundry . It is a five-part chime that sounds in the tone sequence c, d, f, a, c. The new bells rang for the first time on October 6, 1922. The cross of vow on the outside wall of the church in the inner courtyard was attached and blessed in 1950. It is the first public cross on Küsnachter soil since the Reformation. The relief on the facade opposite the main entrance of the church shows St. George.

inner space

The main nave is separated from the side aisles by arcades resting on columns with cube capitals . The crossing is illuminated by the high crossing tower. The semicircular choir is completed by a double row of neo-Romanesque columns. There are semicircular pilaster strips in the lower area and arched windows in the upper area. Due to a lack of financial resources, the interior of the church was simple after the consecration. The actual high altars of the church were only installed in 1928. Further elements of the interior decoration followed gradually. After the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, the interior of the church was changed again and adapted to the requirements of the liturgical constitution . The distinctive paintings on the arcades, window frames, coffered ceilings and on the crossing and choir arches were only created during the restoration in 1986, but they reinforce the romanising impression. In the church there are statues of saints from the 15th to 18th centuries.

  • Neo-Romanesque window

  • Column with cube capital

  • Coffered ceiling

  • Baptismal font with Easter candle

  • Georg Küsnacht ZH window one.jpg

crypt

crypt

Under the church there is a crypt from 1986. It is a low room, the middle part of which was lowered by three steps, so that an appropriate room height could still be achieved. Concrete pillars hold the load of the church building. The wooden paneling of the ceiling and the clinker floor give the crypt a sheltering character. Behind the people's altar is an organ which, like the organ in the upper church, was made by the Graf company from Sursee. Modern glass windows complete the design of the crypt.

Organs

Graf organ from 1977

Main organ of the upper church

The church received its first organ on February 6, 1921. This first instrument was replaced in 1977 by the current organ made by the Graf company in Sursee . The instrument has 35 registers on three manuals and a pedal. In 2012, the Orgelbau Kuhn company installed a setting system, the balancer in the main and swell and electrical couplings. The action mechanism is mechanical, the stop action is electrical.

I Rückpositiv C – g 3
1. Dumped 8th'
2. Principal 4 ′
3. Coupling flute 4 ′
4th Octave 2 ′
5. Fifth 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
6th Cymbal 2 ⁄ 3 ′
7th Krummhorn 8th'
Tremulant
II main work Cg 3
8th. Bourdon 16 ′
9. Principal 8th'
10. Reed flute 8th'
11. Octave 4 ′
12. Pointed flute 4 ′
13. Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
14th Super octave 2 ′
15th mixture 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
16. Trumpet 8th'
III Swell C – g 3
17th Violin principal 8th'
18th Wooden dacked 8th'
19th Gamba 8th'
20th Voix céleste (from c 1 ) 8th'
21st Praestant 4 ′
22nd Reed flute 4 ′
23. Nasat 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
24. recorder 2 ′
25th third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
26th oboe 8th'
27. Schalmey 4 ′
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
28. Principal 16 ′
29 Sub bass 16 ′
30th Octave 8th'
31. Chanter 8th'
32. Octave 4 ′
33. Rauschpfeife IV 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
34. trombone 16 ′
35. prong 8th'
  • The typesetting system comprises a free block, 3 blocks with key switches and 10 blocks, each with 1,000 combinations, protected with code numbers.
  • Register crescendo step with four programmable register crescendos with 20 levels each
  • Swelling step
  • electrical coupling as register rockers and as pistons: III / II Sub, III / I Sub, III / I, III / II, I / II (mechanical), III / P, II / P, I / P; Key K = mechanical coupling III / II
  • Additional pistons: sequencer forward, crescendo on, sequencer forward, crescendo 1-4, sequencer back

Choir organ

In the choir of the upper church there is a continuo organ, which is used as a continuo instrument at orchestral masses, but also for the musical arrangement of smaller devotions and baptisms. The instrument was built by Henk Klop , Garderen, Holland, in 2001. By shifting the manual, the organ transposes to 392 Hz, 415 Hz, 440 Hz and 466 Hz. The instrument can be tuned to 430 Hz.

Disposition of the continuo organ:

manual
Dumped 8th'
Reed flute 4 ′
octave 2 ′
Fifth (from c 1 ) 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′

Organ of the crypt

Graf organ in the crypt from 1986

The company W. Graf, Sursee created a single-manual instrument with attached pedal for the crypt in 1986, which was expanded in 2004 with a sub-bass 16 'in the pedal.

Disposition of the Graf organ:

Manual C – g 3
Dumped 8th'
Principal 4 ′
Reed flute 4 ′
Octave 2 ′
Fifth bass 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Quinte discant (from c 1 ) 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
mixture 1'
Pedal C – g 1
Sub bass 16 ′

literature

  • Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. Chur 1980.
  • Parish of St. Georg Küsnacht (Ed.): St. Georg Küsnacht. Festschrift for the inauguration of the renovated Catholic parish church. Küsnacht 1986.
  • Peter Ziegler: Churches and chapels around Lake Zurich . Th. Gut Verlag, Stäfa 2000.
  • Albin Keller, Christoph Schweiss: 1000 years of faith. For the 100th birthday of the Catholic parish Küsnacht-Erlenbach. Küsnacht 2003.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Albin Keller, Christoph Schweiss: 1000 years of faith. For the 100th birthday of the Catholic parish Küsnacht-Erlenbach. Küsnacht 2003. pp. 14–15.
  2. ↑ Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. P. 220
  3. ↑ Albin Keller, Christoph Schweiss: 1000 years of faith. For the 100th birthday of the Catholic parish Küsnacht-Erlenbach. Küsnacht 2003. p. 19.
  4. ↑ Albin Keller, Christoph Schweiss: 1000 years of faith. For the 100th birthday of the Catholic parish Küsnacht-Erlenbach. Küsnacht 2003. pp. 5 and 21.
  5. ^ Roman Catholic Church in the Canton of Zurich (Ed.): Annual Report 2017 , p. 83.
  6. ↑ Albin Keller, Christoph Schweiss: 1000 years of faith. For the 100th birthday of the Catholic parish Küsnacht-Erlenbach. Küsnacht 2003. pp. 19-20.
  7. ↑ Albin Keller, Christoph Schweiss: 1000 years of faith. For the 100th birthday of the Catholic parish Küsnacht-Erlenbach. Küsnacht 2003. p. 20.
  8. ↑ More information about the [organ]

Web links

Commons : Katholische Kirche Küsnacht  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 47 ° 19 ′ 1.1 "  N , 8 ° 34 ′ 51.8"  E ; CH1903:  686373  /  241305