St. Martin (miles)
The Church of St. Martin is the Roman Catholic parish church of Meilen on the right bank of Lake Zurich in the canton of Zurich .
history
History and naming
As early as the Middle Ages , there was a church in Meilen which was dedicated to St. Martin of Tours . This church was probably founded by the Säckingen monastery between 878 and 965 . In 965 Otto the Great gave the church, church set and tithes to the Einsiedeln monastery . After the Reformation in Zurich in 1523, the Catholic cult was banned in the subject areas of Zurich. The medieval church of Meilen was used for Reformed services from then on.
For the first time since the Reformation, the Edict of Tolerance of 1807 allowed Catholic services in the canton of Zurich, initially limited to Zurich. The freedom of establishment in the Helvetic Republic and later in the Swiss federal state made it possible for Catholics to move in from central and eastern Switzerland , as well as from nearby Catholic countries. The construction of new roads and the opening of the right bank Zurichseebahn in 1894 as well as the proximity to the city of Zurich promoted the further development of Meilen. When the first Catholic mission station and the later parish of St. Stephen was founded in the district of Meilen in Männedorf in 1864 , the Catholics of Meilen were also part of it. A second possibility for attending church services on the right bank of Lake Zurich was after the founding of the parish of St. Georg in Küsnacht ZH in 1898.
Development and construction history
The further increase in the Catholic population of Meilen gave rise to the wish that a Catholic parish should also be established in Meilen. As early as 1893, the Catholic children from Meilen were able to attend religious instruction in the village. In 1921, at the meeting of the Catholic men's association, the suggestion was made to create a separate worship service in Meilen. For this purpose, a Catholic church building association was founded. The search for a suitable place for worship turned out to be difficult. In 1933 they found what they were looking for in the company building of the electricity company . The simple hall was prepared as an emergency chapel and on September 24, 1933 the first Catholic service in Meilen took place in it since the Reformation. On October 6, 1935, Meilen was raised to parish rectorate and separated from Männedorf. In the years 1935–1937 the area could be acquired for the construction of a later parish church. However, the lack of financial resources and the outbreak of World War II made the project of building a church difficult. On November 19, 1950, the foundation stone of the Church of St. Martin was laid. The simple hall church with a transverse rectory was built according to plans by the architect Otto Glaus . On June 10, 1951, the church was designated by the Bishop of Chur , Christian Caminada . The public law recognition of the Catholic Church in the canton of Zurich in 1963 enabled the further expansion of the church and community life in Meilen. The free-standing concrete tower of the church was built in 1969 according to plans by the architect Otto Glaus. On June 28, 1969, the four bells were raised in the tower. In 1974 the church was adapted to the liturgy constitution of the Second Vatican Council according to plans by the architect HR Kuhn Zurich. The Chur bishop Johannes Vonderach consecrated the church in 1974. 1977–1978 a parish center was added to the rectory and the church. It consisted of a parish hall and a classroom. After the building structure of the church had deteriorated in the 1980s, the construction of a new church was discussed and later dropped. In 1993, the loan for a comprehensive renovation and expansion of the church was approved by the parish assembly. In the years 1994–1995 the church was expanded by adding a working day chapel to the choir. The parish center was also expanded. This was done according to plans by the architect Rudolf Mathys.
The parish of St. Martin, with its 3,352 members (as of 2017), is one of the medium-sized Catholic parishes in the canton of Zurich.
Building description
Church tower and exterior
The Church of St. Martin is located between the stilt and the Bruechstrasse in miles far from the train station . Via an outside staircase and a forecourt, the visitor reaches the Church of St. Martin. Due to the topography and the course of the road, the church could not be built with a face, but is oriented to the northwest. The actual church building from 1950 is a simple, rectangular hall church with a gable roof , which was originally closed off by a low turret with space for three bells. The extension of the weekday chapel from 1994–1995 sets a new architectural accent. The concrete church tower , which was added in 1969, indicates the location of the church from afar. Although it was built by the same architect as the church, the church tower stands out from the church both through its concrete material and its cubic shape. The reason for this lies in the planned, but not implemented, overall development of the adjacent area by the Reformed parish. The four bells were cast by H. Rüetschi , Aarau and have a total weight of 3950 kg and the tone series d, f, g and a. The bells were raised in the tower on June 27, 1969 by the school children.
| number | volume | dedication | inscription |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | d | Holy Trinity | Heaven and earth are filled with your glory. |
| 2 | f | Maria | My soul lives the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. |
| 3 | G | St. Martin | Martinus dressed me in this coat. |
| 4th | a | youth | Gladly praise the Lord in youthful choirs. |
Interior and artistic equipment
The interior of the church has been bathed in reddish light since the redesign between 1994 and 1995, which is produced by the stained glass windows in the nave. Frosted glass , which was placed in front of the stained glass windows, dampens the coloring. The construction of the altar area and the attached weekday chapel give the impression of a retracted choir. In fact, a kind of rood screen is built in front of the altar area , behind which the broad rectangular altar area utilizes the full height of the church building. The conception of the church from 1950 was based on the ratio 1: 2, which one comes across again and again in the original church, most clearly in the interior, the length of which is twice as great as the width. The windows of the hall church also have similar proportions, the six windows being 6 meters high and almost 3 meters wide. The weekday chapel is significantly lower than the original church building. The chapel and with it the entire church building is closed off by a front wall into which a stained glass window in the shape of a cross is let. The furniture in the chancel was designed according to an artistic concept by Carlos Matter (coloring of the six windows in the church, design of the chancel) and Sr. Raphaela Bürgi (glass window in the chancel and side window of the weekday chapel). The side window of the chapel follows the two sentences from the Psalms: "Do I have to hike in a dark gorge, I fear no harm, because you are with me." (Psalm 23) "He shields you with his wings, under his wings you find refuge." (Psalm 91) Altar , ambo , tabernacle , the choir stalls and the base of the baptismal font form a unit through the orientalizing pattern. The new elements complement the older elements that were taken over, such as the baptismal font or the altar cross and the Easter candlestick by Alfred Huber, Rümlang. The other liturgical elements by Alfred Huber, which had shaped the church between 1974 and 1994 (altar, ambo) were replaced by new liturgical furniture. The artist Carlos Matter writes about the design of the sanctuary in 1995: Here “aspects of the life and work of Saint Martin are thematized in an encrypted way… The basis for all elements is made of concrete, the covers or attachments are made of serpentine . Transferred to St. Martin, concrete stands for life as a warrior and natural stone refers to life as a man of the spirit. The tabernacle is made entirely of steel - the armor of the knight. Eternal light is integrated in the upper part, the head as the seat of the spirit. ”Cloths in the liturgical colors can be hung on the ambo , which refer to the cloak of St. Martin of Tours. In the entrance area, glass windows, which were built into the six windows of the church in 1974, as well as a fresco by Mario Comensoli have been preserved. This fresco depicts St. George fighting the dragon.
organ
On August 26, 1951, the first organ of the church was handed over to its intended use. It was an instrument that had actually been built for a church in Spain and could not then be delivered. After various reports suggested the construction of a new organ, in 1999 an organ commission was commissioned to procure a new instrument. Rudolf Scheidegger, organist at the Grossmünster and lecturer at the Zurich University of Music , accompanied the organ commission and carried out the inauguration of the new organ. The organ, built in 2002–2003, comes from the company Orgelbau Späth , Rapperswil, and takes up the architecture of the church in its organ brochure, so that the organ blends harmoniously into the existing church. The instrument is designed in such a way that mainly baroque literature, but also selected literature from the 19th and 20th centuries, can be played. The instrument was inaugurated on January 26, 2003.
Disposition:
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- Coupling : interacting with moves and kicks II / I, I / P, II / P
- Mechanical play and stop action
- Free-standing game table
- Housing solid oak
Trivia
After the bells were lifted into the tower by the school children on June 27, 1969, an employee of the H. Rüetschi bell foundry was struck by lightning while installing the bells . The man fell from the 30 meter high tower and was killed.
literature
- Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. Chur 1980.
- Fritz Hauswirth: The history of the Catholic parish St. Martin in miles. Miles 1983.
- Parish of Meilen (ed.): Festschrift for the dedication of the renovated Catholic St. Martin's Church in Meilen. Miles 1995.
- Organ Commission Church of St. Martin, Meilen (Ed.): Organ inauguration of the Catholic Church in Meilen. Miles 2003.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Fritz Hauswirth: The history of the Catholic parish St. Martin in miles. Pp. 4-6.
- ^ Fritz Hauswirth: The history of the Catholic parish St. Martin in miles. Pp. 10-11.
- ↑ Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. P. 226.
- ^ Fritz Hauswirth: The history of the Catholic parish St. Martin in miles. P. 22.
- ↑ Catholic Church in the Canton of Zurich (Ed.): Annual Report 2017, p. 83.
- ^ Fritz Hauswirth: The history of the Catholic parish St. Martin in miles. Pp. 16-17.
- ^ Fritz Hauswirth: The history of the Catholic parish St. Martin in miles. P. 14.
- ^ Parish of Meilen (Ed.): Festschrift for the dedication of the renovated Catholic St. Martin's Church in Meilen. Pp. 10-11.
- ^ Parish of Meilen (Ed.): Festschrift for the dedication of the renovated Catholic St. Martin's Church in Meilen. Pp. 12-13.
- ↑ Inscription on the forecourt of the church and greeting card from the parish of Meilen.
- ^ Fritz Hauswirth: The history of the Catholic parish St. Martin in miles. P. 26.
- ↑ Organ Commission Church St. Martin, Meilen (Ed.): Organ inauguration of the Catholic Church in Meilen.
- ^ Fritz Hauswirth: The history of the Catholic parish St. Martin in miles. Pp. 16-17.
Coordinates: 47 ° 16 '12.3 " N , 8 ° 38' 46.4" E ; CH1903: 691,379 / 236168