St. Josef (Köniz)

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Church center St. Josef from the village square
St. Josef, from above with the castle in the background

The Church of St. Josef is the Roman Catholic parish church of the parish of St. Josef in Köniz . It was built in 1990–1991 at Stapfenstrasse 25 to replace the church on Feldeggweg, which had become too small.

History and parish structure

Köniz and the Schwarzenburgerland belonged to the parish of St. Antonius in Bümpliz since their foundation in 1936 . The way over the Pfaffensteig through the Könizbergwald to the church in Bümpliz soon became too difficult for the Könizern. Some women and men from the community came to the dean of Bern with the request that services should also be held in Köniz. Thanks to the friendly hospitality of the Protestant church, the Catholics were allowed to use a church bar on Dianaweg for the first time on March 5, 1939. The space available there became increasingly precarious over time, which is why a separate church was built on Feldeggstrasse, which was inaugurated on April 30, 1950 by Bishop Franziskus von Streng . In 1955 the parish was officially founded and its first pastor, Johann Hänggi, took office. With a resolution of the Grand Council of the Canton of Bern, the Roman Catholic parish of St. Josef Köniz - St. Michael Wabern was created in 1966. On July 1, 1976, St. Michael and St. Josef separated into their own parishes. With a resolution of the Grand Council of June 6, 2012, the geographical boundaries of the parish were redefined. The boundaries of the parish include only parts of the municipality of Köniz. In addition to the village of Köniz, these are the communities of Guggisberg , Oberbalm , Rüschegg and Schwarzenburg . The adjacent areas are assigned to the neighboring parishes of St. Michael (Wabern) , St. Antonius (Bern-Bümpliz) and Dreifaltigkeit Bern .

First church

The building site of 2,000 m² on the corner of Feldeggstrasse and Schlossstrasse was acquired by the entire parish of Bern for 50,000 francs in spring 1946. On October 10, 1948, the commissioned architect Alban Gerster submitted a plan for approval to the entire parish. The local community members could not get their opinion on the building, which they thought was too small, and the plan was implemented. The foundation stone of the church was laid on August 21, 1949, and it was consecrated on April 30, 1950 by Bishop Francis von Streng. The hall building with retracted rectangular choir and attached sacristy had the confessional and the baptistery under the gallery. The pews stood on wooden floors on both sides of the aisle. The Catholics in Köniz had to take care of the entire interior. A statue of the Virgin Mary by the artist Hans von Matt from Stans has been transferred to the second church from the facility acquired at the time . Until March 3, 1991, the simply built church served the rapidly growing community. It was sold and demolished. Residential buildings were built on the property.

The new church

As early as 1965, the parish council was looking for a plot of land to build a new church. On March 8, 1981, the voters approved the purchase of the property on Stapfenstrasse for 1,190,000 francs. The project by architects Hansueli Jörg and Hans Martin Sturm from Langnau was selected from the eight submitted projects. Despite some protests of various kinds, the building loan of 7.9 million Swiss francs was approved by the entire parish on May 24, 1987. At the end of 1988, the municipality of Köniz approved the building application, but initially because of objections without a tower. That was then granted in reduced training and also, sixteen months later, the three bells. Construction work began with the groundbreaking on February 5, 1989, and the foundation stone was laid on September 2, 1989. The bell lift was the consecration of the church on March 3, 1991 and March 10, 1991.

Building description

The St. Josef church center is built as an angular frame structure in the outgoing Köniz valley at the foot of the Gurten foothills . The church is oriented towards the east according to the traditional rule. The parish hall is angled directly connected to the church. The baptistery is inserted as an independent round building in the triangle between the church and the hall building. The rectory, classrooms and rectory form the south-western enclosure and the sacristan's apartment connected with a false roof form the northwestern corner of the area. The architects Hansueli Jörg and Martin Sturm put the building ensemble under the monastic theme of “intra murum”. From the village square one enters the church courtyard under the flat bridging roof supported by prestressed concrete girders. The height difference is overcome with four steps and a wheelchair ramp designed as a design element. The buildings are made of exposed brickwork with concrete blocks. An essential component of the main front and inside over the aisles are wide segmental arches, the pressure of which is absorbed by concrete tie bars. With the exposed brickwork and the entire system composition, this motif refers to the American architect Louis I. Kahn .

Interior and artistic equipment

Interior of the church

Narrow side aisles receive daylight from above and behind. The slightly raised chancel is brightened by indirect light from above. Its slightly concave rear wall is reminiscent of a dam against the mountain rising behind it. In the right aisle is the narrow and tall-looking Mary or Nativity Chapel with the gilded Madonna created by Hans von Matt. In the left aisle, the counterpart to this is the memorial for the dead with a torn panel as a symbolic sign of the finitude of human existence. Under the arch on the right-hand side, the anteroom to the community hall, separated by a mobile and colorfully painted wall, can be opened and the church space can be expanded. The blue baptistery is also accessible from there. The pews are arranged in a semicircular arrangement on both sides of the central aisle. A yellow colored stripe runs across the back wall of the altar as a symbol of the connection between birth and baptism, life and death. Like the lectern and the candlestick, the altar stands on cubic base elements made of dark stone, in which the light altar plate, the lectern or the candlestick are inserted, like a traditional wooden connection. A white stripe is embedded in the basalt stone floor from the center of the altar to the entrance gate. With the colors blue for the sky on the right, yellow for the earth and green for spring and hope on the left, meditative stimuli are given. The church complex is shaped by elementary basic human needs: light that comes from above; Water that is fed from a spring into the baptismal font and in a straight line underground to the nearby Sulgenbach; Bread from the altar, a straight line leads to the old oven house in the village square; Doors, the staircase with the wheelchair ramp in the middle to the church courtyard with access to all rooms and the entrance to the church stepped inwards, as with Romanesque portals. From the beginning of the planning, the artist Kurt Sigrist for the sculptural work and the painter Godi Hirschi for the color design were closely involved; their handwriting can be clearly seen.

  • Memorial for the dead

  • Lady Chapel

  • Baptistery

  • Sacrament house

  • candle holder

Bells

Church with a low bell support

The three bells on the low bell bearer are coordinated with the peal of the nearby Reformed Church and were donated by parishioners and the local community. They have contemporary names.

  • Justice bell, b ', 400 kg, "The heavens shall proclaim your righteousness" (Psalm 50.6)
  • Peace bell, as', 500 kg, "Peace, peace to those near and far - saith the Lord" (Isa. 57.19)
  • Creation bell, f ', 900 kg, "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" (Gen 1.1)

organ

organ

The new organ on the gallery was inaugurated on October 22, 1992.

Special

An environmentally friendly concept was already used during construction. The first measures were implemented with double-walled masonry, the avoidance of toxic substances, a grass roof over the hall, the connection to the district heating system of the school center and the design of the environment with native plants. A working group was founded with the aim of achieving 10% energy savings, and solar collectors were also installed on the roof of the sacristan apartment to heat water. The St Joseph Creation Responsibility Working Group has been in place since the end of 2014 for ongoing monitoring and improvement, in which representatives from the parish council and parish council as well as parish members and the environmental officer of the “oeku Church and Environment” are involved. As a result, the parish received the “Green Güggel” certificate on May 1, 2016, which is comparable to the ISO 14000 certificate .

literature

  • Judith Ackermann, Andreas Brun et al .: Will Work Life. Parish of St. Joseph 1939–2013 . Parish of the parish of St. Josef, Köniz 2013, ISBN 978-3-03304132-5 .
  • Fabrizio Brentini, Swiss St. Luke Society for Art and Church: Building for the Church. Catholic church building of the 20th century in Switzerland . Lucerne 6: Edition SSL, cop. 1994, Lucerne 1994. Diss. Phil. I Zurich, 1993/94.
  • Zita Caviezel et al .: Art guide through Switzerland . tape 3 : Basel-Country, Basel City, Bern, Solothurn . GSK, Bern 2006, ISBN 3-906131-97-1 , p. 294 .
  • Gabriela Hanke et al .: Catholic Bern from 1799 to 1999. A stopover . Total Roman Catholic parish of Bern and the surrounding area, Bern 1999.

See also

List of Roman Catholic churches in the canton of Bern

Web links

Commons : St. Josef (Köniz)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Former route from Frienisberg Monastery to the Johanniterkomturei Köniz.
  2. ↑ Judith Ackermann, Andreas Brun et al .: Will work life. Parish of St. Joseph 1939–2013 . Parish of the parish of St. Josef, Köniz 2013, ISBN 978-3-03304132-5 (division of the parish).
  3. ↑ Grand Council resolution on the delimitation of the parishes. In: Website of the Government Council of the Canton of Bern, April 4, 2012 (PDF; 111 kB).
  4. ↑ Web site oeku Ecclesiastical environmental management .

Coordinates: 46 ° 55 '20.1 "  N , 7 ° 25' 1.2"  E ; CH1903:  598 353  /  196795