St. Josef (Winterthur-Töss)

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St. Joseph Church
View from the northwest
inside view

The Church of St. Josef is a Roman Catholic parish church in the city of Winterthur . It is located in the Töss district at Nägelseestrasse 46 . It is the second oldest Catholic church in the city of Winterthur after the Reformation .

history

The Töss Monastery

In the 13th century the Dominican convent Töss was built in the area of ​​what is now the Töss district , which was one of the strongholds of mysticism in the 14th century . This is reported in the Tösser sister book from around 1340 , which in 34 vitae offers a far-reaching insight into the world of Tösser women's mysticism . The Töss Monastery was particularly popular with members of the landed nobility and the town council and patrician families. Admission presupposed a certain ability; as a result, the monastery acquired considerable property through donations and purchases. In its heyday in the late 13th and 14th centuries, over a hundred nuns lived in the monastery. Despite the strict regulations, the monastery was so attractive that the nuns' admission was temporarily restricted. After the Reformation in Zurich, the monastery became the property of the state and became an office. His property was confiscated by the Zurich government. In the following years the buildings were used as office buildings. The former monastery church was used for Reformed church services. After the French Revolution around 1800 the monastery buildings were empty. In 1833 the Canton of Zurich abolished all offices and the monastery was auctioned. The entrepreneur Johann Jakob Rieter (1762–1826) bought the system and built his Rieter machine factory in its place . Because of its height, the church was used as a factory hall and was only demolished in 1916. The Reformed Church of Winterthur-Töss was built between 1854 and 1855 for the Reformed church services .

Return of the Catholics

The Edict of Tolerance of the Zurich Government Council of September 10, 1807 allowed a Catholic community in Zurich for the first time. When the Cantonal Council of Zurich decided to abolish the Rheinau monastery on April 22nd, 1862, the canton combined the abolition of the monastery with the need to give the monastery property a new, legally regulated use. This led to the drafting of a Catholic church law. The so-called First Church Law of Zurich in 1863 finally recognized the Catholic parishes in addition to Zurich, also in Winterthur, Dietikon and Rheinau (the last two were traditionally Catholic places). On August 10, 1862, the day of remembrance of the medieval city patron St. Laurentius , an official Catholic service was held in Winterthur for the first time since the Reformation. This was held in the prayer room of the old city ​​chancellery . The founding assembly of the Catholic parish of Winterthur took place on December 13, 1863 - one year before the state church law was formulated in the canton of Zurich. In 1868 the church of St. Peter and Paul was built in the newly created Neuwiesen district as the first Catholic church in the city of Winterthur. Until the construction of the other six Catholic parish churches from the beginning of the 20th century, it was the center for the church life of Catholics who immigrated to Winterthur.

Development and construction history of the parish

The parish of St. Josef in the Töss district is a daughter parish of St. Peter and Paul Winterthur-Neuwiesen . In the course of industrialization and the settlement of factories in Winterthur and Töss, Catholic working-class families also increasingly moved to Töss, so that at the end of the 19th century the desire arose to form a Catholic community in Töss. In 1901, Catholic religious instruction began in Töss. From January 21, 1906, Catholic services were again celebrated in Töss in a classroom in the Eichliacker schoolhouse . Between 1905 and 1930, pieces of land were gradually bought together to build the church, the rectory and the parish center. In 1913 construction began on the St. Josef Church, which was built according to plans by the architect Adolf Gaudy , Rorschach and with funds from the Kultusverein from Chur. On August 30, 1914, the church was designated and the Töss district was appointed a parish rectorate. Due to the large number of working class families in Töss, it was decided to dedicate the church to St. Joseph , the patron saint of the workers. In 1921 the rectory was built, which was built by the Châlet-Fabrik Interlaken in the Châlet style. On September 11, 1949, the Chur bishop Christian Caminada inaugurated the fully equipped church. On November 29, 1969, the parish center including the new rectory was inaugurated. On October 1, 1970, the parish rectorate of St. Josef was raised to an independent parish and separated from St. Peter and Paul Winterthur-Neuwiesen. In 1973 the exterior of the church was renovated, and between 1976 and 1977 the interior was renovated. In 2011, the interior of the parish center was extensively renovated.

The parish of St. Josef, along with the other Catholic parishes in the city, belongs to the parish of Winterthur. With 25,882 members (as of 2014), this is the largest Catholic parish in the Canton of Zurich. The parish of St. Josef is responsible for 2,861 Catholics.

Building description

Church tower and exterior

Steeple

The architecture of the Church of St. Josef unites two church building tendencies at the beginning of the 20th century: On the one hand, there are clear references to Romanesque and Gothic buildings, which continues the tradition of eclecticism from the 19th century. On the other hand, there are also efforts to find new architectural solutions in this church building.

The church tower hides a four-part bell that was consecrated by the Bishop of Chur, Georg Schmid von Grüneck on June 23, 1929 and then raised into the tower by the schoolchildren. The bells came from the bell foundry Hamm in Staad . On Christmas 1929 the church tower received a clock made by the company Mäder, Andelfingen .

number volume dedication inscription
1 H Guardian Angel "Holy Guardian Angel, protect, shield, guide our youth"
2 d St. Joseph "Saint Joseph, support of families, pray for our church"
3 e Maria "Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us, now and at the hour of our death"
4th G Trinity "Praise be to the Holy Trinity and undivided unity"

  • Large window from the outside

  • Neo-Gothic window from the outside

  • Receipt in original condition

Interior and artistic equipment

The square floor plan of the church makes the church appear smaller than it actually is. Until the renovation in the 1970s, it had 450 seats and had a high altar with neo-Gothic carving from the workshop of the sculptor Holenstein in Wil SG . In 1949 two new elements were added to the interior of the church: A new tabernacle showed Jesus and the disciples of Emmaus on the copper-embossed and gilded doors . The tabernacle came from Elisabeth Kamps-Mösler from St. Gallen. The second new element was the 14 stations of the cross , which was carved by Beat Gasser, Lungern .

In the years 1976–1977 the interior of the church was redesigned by the architects Tanner and Loetscher . Since the parish had a large church choir at that time and the organ loft at that time was too narrow, especially for orchestral masses, the church initially wanted to be extended by six meters. However, this would have narrowed the building site for the parish center and significantly changed the appearance of the church. Therefore, architect Felix Loetscher suggested leaving the church on the outside and redesigning the interior so that the church choir got more space and the communion idea of ​​the Second Vatican Council could be expressed. Since the Church of St. Josef is a central building , Felix Loetscher and Robert Tanner put the new people's altar in the middle of the church and positioned the chairs for the believers around it. The new organ was erected in the vacated choir and a pedestal gave the church choir enough space without the church having to be extended. The artist Werner Ignaz Jans designed the tabernacle and the font in the choir niches .

In 1986 the reliefs of the former high altar were repositioned in the niches of the choir.

  • View into the church

  • Altar by Felix Lötscher

  • Wall painting detail

  • Ceiling painting detail shot

organ

Späth organ from 1977

From 1914 to 1932 there was a small organ on the gallery of the church , which was purchased for 1,400 francs. A second organ was consecrated on May 22, 1932. It came from Orgelbau AG in Willisau and cost 15,300 francs. The current organ of the church was placed in the former choir after the room was redesigned in 1977, so that the architectural weighting of this area does not come to nothing, but is filled with church music. The organ was built in 1977 by Späth Orgelbau . The action and registration are purely mechanical. The instrument has a rotary knob combination, three normal coupling, interactive, grinding windchest. The organ case is made of solid red beech. The project and advice were provided by R. Wäger, organist SMPV, SIAC, Kreuzlingen. Martin Pflüger performed the intonation.

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
Quintad 16 ′
Principal 8th'
Reed flute 8th'
Octave 8th'
Pointed flute 4 ′
Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
Strong flute 2 ′
Mixture V 2 ′
Trumpet 8th'
II breastwork C – g 3
Wooden dacked 8th'
Salizional 8th'
Principal 4 ′
Night horn 4 ′
Sesquialter 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ and 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
Octave 2 ′
Chamois fifth 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Sharp cymbals 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
shelf 8th'
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
Sub bass 16 ′
Flute bass 8th'
Covered pommer 8th'
Choral bass 4 ′ and 2 ′
bassoon 8th'

literature

  • Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. Chur 1980.
  • Parish Council of St. Josef Töss (Ed.): 75 years of the Church of St. Josef Töss. Special edition of the Consajo. Winterthur 1989.
  • Parish Council of St. Josef Töss (Ed.): 100 years of St. Josef Töss Church. Special edition of the Consajo. Winterthur 2014.

Web links

Commons : Josef Winterthur-Töss  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Parish council of St. Josef Töss (Ed.): 75 years of the Church of St. Josef Töss. Special edition of the Consajo. Pp. 5-7.
  2. ^ Henri Truffer: Association of Roman Catholic Parishes of the City of Zurich. Zurich 1989, p. 192
  3. ^ Peter Niederhäuser and Flurina Pescatore: St. Peter and Paul. The mother church of Katholisch-Winterthur , pp. 8–9.
  4. ^ Peter Niederhäuser and Flurina Pescatore: St. Peter and Paul. The mother church of Katholisch-Winterthur , pp. 10-14.
  5. ↑ Bischöfliches Ordinariat Chur (Hrsg.): Schematismus. P. 266.
  6. ^ Parish council of St. Josef Töss (Ed.): 75 years of the Church of St. Josef Töss. Special edition of the Consajo. P. 10.
  7. ↑ Catholic Church in the Canton of Zurich (ed.): Annual Report 2014. Zurich 2014, p. 79.
  8. ^ Catholic parish of Winterthur, counting of Catholics as of December 31, 2017.
  9. ↑ Chronicle of the Diocese of Chur. Quoted from: Parish Council St. Josef Töss (Hrsg.): 75 years Church of St. Josef Töss. Special edition of the Consajo. Pp. 9-10.
  10. ^ Parish council of St. Josef Töss (Ed.): 75 years of the Church of St. Josef Töss. Special edition of the Consajo. P. 10 and 13.
  11. ↑ Markus Weber: Interview with Felix Loetscher and Robert Tanner from July 19, 2016.
  12. ^ Parish council of St. Josef Töss (Ed.): 75 years of the Church of St. Josef Töss. Special edition of the Consajo. Pp. 10-11.
  13. ^ Parish council of St. Josef Töss (Ed.): 75 years of the Church of St. Josef Töss. Special edition of the Consajo. P. 10.

Coordinates: 47 ° 29 '33.9 "  N , 8 ° 42' 9.1"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred ninety-five thousand two hundred and forty-one  /  260 988