St. Marien (Basel)

Church tower and choir of St. Mary's Church seen from Byfangweg

Front view

The Marienkirche is a Roman Catholic church in the Swiss city ​​of Basel . It is located in the Am Ring district and is dedicated to the mother of Jesus .

The church was built with quarry stone masonry that rests on a concrete foundation under the supervision of J. Zehnder between 1884 and 1886. It was the first Catholic church to be built in Basel since the Reformation .

Building history

The Catholic parish was originally housed in the Clarakirche from 1798 , but despite an expansion of this church it could no longer accommodate all the faithful and a replacement was therefore sought.

The well-known Basel civil engineer Paul Reber , a typical representative of late historicism , who knew how to build Protestant and Catholic churches in any style, was able to be won over as the architect for the new building . The neo-Romanesque church was designed as a large, three-aisled , flat-roofed column basilica with a transept , although the transept could not be very pronounced due to the spacing. The church had 1,300 seats. Inside, the four monolithic round columns made of Veronese marble dominate the picture. The rich furnishings were designed in neo-Byzantine style. For financial reasons, the construction of the tower was initially only planned.

In 1954, renovation and modernization of the church was considered inevitable. The executive architect was Fritz Metzger. The result was radical: a room stripped of any neo-Byzantine furnishing elements, which was painted white including the marble columns. In addition, the windows were decorated with new glass paintings by Coghuf .

After a fire in 1983, the church was again extensively restored by HP Baur and Fritz Kettner. The pictures of the Stations of the Cross from the original church were discovered in a cellar and reassembled.

organ

The first organ was inaugurated as early as 1886 . The instrument was built by the Klingler brothers (Rorschach) and had 34 registers . In 1932 the instrument was rebuilt and expanded to 39 registers, in 1958 it was expanded to 42 registers. Today's organ was built by the organ builder Hans Füglister (Grimisuat) and inaugurated in 1989.

I Grand Orgue C-g 3 Bourdon 16 ′ Montre 8th' Bourdon 8th' Viol 8th' Prestant 4 ′ Flute 4 ′ Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Duplicate 2 ′ Fittings IV 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ Cymbals II 2 ⁄ 3 ′ Grand Cornet V 8th' Trumpets 8th'

II positive C-g 3 Bourdon 8th' Viol 8th' Prestant 4 ′ Flûte douce 4 ′ Nazard 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Duplicate 2 ′ Tierce 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′ Mixture III-VI 1' Cromorne 8th' Tremblant

III Récit expressif C – g 3 Bourdon 16 ′ Salicional 8th' Voix céleste 8th' Flûte harm. 8th' Bourdon 8th' Flûte octaviante 4 ′ Octavine 2 ′ Plein-jeu IV 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Basson 16 ′ Trumpet harm. 8th' Hautbois 8th' Tremblant

Pedale C – f 1 Montre 16 ′ Soubasse 16 ′ Fifth 10 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Principal 8th' Bourdon 8th' Octave 4 ′ Fittings IV 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Bombard 16 ′ Trumpets 8th' Clairon 4 ′

Individual evidence

Web links

Commons : Marienkirche (Basel)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website of the parish of St. Marien

• Photographs in the image database of the Canton of Basel-Stadt

Coordinates: 47 ° 33 ′ 13 "  N , 7 ° 35 ′ 4"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred ten thousand nine hundred and seventy-six  /  two hundred and sixty-six thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight

1. ↑ Othmar Birkner and Hanspeter Rebsamen: Basel , p. 165. In: Society for Swiss Art History (ed.): INSA 1850-1920, Volume 2 . Orell Füssli, Zurich 1986. ISBN 3-280-01716-5 .
2. ↑ ^{a b} St. Marien Parish - Parish and Building History ( 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. 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} St. Marien: The history of the Marienkirche on www.orgel-basel.ch
4. ↑ More information about the organ