St. Martin (Zurich-Fluntern)

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Church of St. Martin from Krähbühlstrasse
View from the south
Portal by Max Rüedi in the design from 2014
Saint Verena by José de Nève
inside view
View to the church ceiling

The Church of St. Martin is the Roman Catholic parish church in the Zurich district of Fluntern . It is located at Krähbühlstrasse 50 near Zurich Zoo .

history

As early as the Middle Ages, there was the St. Martin monastery on the Zürichberg, which was founded by Augustinian canons in 1127 and dissolved again in the course of the Reformation . 460 years later, the tradition of Martins patronage on the Zürichberg was continued with the construction of today's St. Martin Church.

The parish of St. Martin is a subsidiary of the parish Liebfrauen Zurich. As early as 1920 the parish of Liebfrauen was looking for an area to build a Catholic church in Fluntern. In particular, the Catholic service staff in the villas on the Zürichberg could not make the long journey to the Church of Our Lady without any problems because of their working hours, so that regular attendance of church services was impossible for this section of the population. When looking for a place for worship, the old church of Fluntern was also considered, as the Reformed parish of Fluntern has not needed the old one since the new church was built. But the city's real estate management was not prepared to cede the old church to the Catholics. The building site for today's St. Martin Church was acquired on April 27, 1933 by the Catholic Church Building Association. Anton Higi (1885–1951), who had also built the Zurich churches Guthirt (Wipkingen) and Brother Klaus (Unterstrass) , was commissioned with the planning of the church. In the years 1938 to 1939 built Anton Higi with the help of the young architect Walter Rieger , who later together with Ferdinand Pfammatter Zurich churches Epiphany (Enge) , St. Konrad (Albisrieden) and St. Gallus (Schwamendingen) built, the Church of St. Martin. On June 4, 1939, the Chur bishop Laurenz Matthias Vincenz blessed the church, and on November 1, 1940 he elevated St. Martin to an independent parish.

The basement of the church was rebuilt in 1960 by Cramer, Jaray and Paillard. In 1965 the interior of the church was redesigned by architect Fritz Metzger (1898–1973) and adapted to the requirements of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council . In 1971 the church gallery was renovated by the architect Paul Steger. At the same time, the hall under the church and the kindergarten established in 1955 were redesigned. It was operated as a Catholic kindergarten until 2015 and then handed over to the City of Zurich. In 1995 the bell carrier was raised and the window openings on the south facade were enlarged, both by architect Benedikt Huber. In 2003, the outside insulation, the pergola extension, the extension of the canopy were carried out, all by the architects R. Beerli and H. Zehnder. The interior of the church was renovated in 2013 under architect Peter Stöckli. A central chandelier consisting of three concentric circles was installed, the forecourt of the church was converted to make it barrier-free, a free-standing elevator to the parish rooms in the basement was built and the rooms in the basement were modernized.

With 1,484 members (as of 2017), St. Martin is the smallest parish in the city of Zurich and includes parts of the Fluntern and Hottingen districts .

Building description

Seen from the Krähbühlstrasse, the church of St. Martin was built a bit set back. In addition, their deliberately modest demeanor was underscored by the omission of a church tower. From the outside, however, it can already be seen that the St. Martin Church is a central building - a design that was rarely used when St. Martin was built. Ferdinand Matt, the pastor of the Church of Our Lady at the time, had suggested to the architect Anton Higi to build the church based on the model of the church on the Buon Pastore estate of the Collegium Germanicum . In contrast to the floor plan and the external design, which is clearly based on the baroque model of the church on the Buon Pastore estate, the interior of the church shows its modernity primarily through the arching of the church interior with the parallel-arched barrel arms.

Roof turrets and bells

During the construction of this church, a steeple was deliberately omitted - according to the founding document of the church, out of consideration for the Protestant environment. The church cannot be seen from the street side, but instead has a roof turret that was attached to the roof of the church choir. In 1995 the roof turret was increased and the ringing, which originally consisted of two bells from 1939, was supplemented by a third, larger bell. As part of the renovation work in 2013, the exterior of the roof turret was adjusted to its original shape.

number Weight volume dedication
1 305 kg c Charles Borromeo
2 163 kg it St. Martin of Tours
3 420 kg b St. Lioba

Works of art in the outside space

The relief above the main entrance was created by the sculptor Alois Payer (1878–1960), Einsiedeln and depicts St. Martin, as a Roman captain on horseback, dividing his cloak to give half of the cloak to the freezing beggar. This relief is reminiscent of the sculptures in the area of ​​the spiritual national defense .

The entrance door to the parish hall under the church was designed in 1974 by the Zurich artist Max Rüedi . The two enamel plates thematize the sentence “A camel is more likely to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” ( Lk 18.25  EU ).

Furnishing

The monumental church window in the choir was designed by the Basel artist August Wanner (1886–1970) and shows the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the middle field . The left window field bears the inscription "Lord, stay with us, because evening will come" and shows the encounter of the risen Christ with the Emmaus disciples , the right with the inscription "Seelig, who do not see and yet believe" also thematizes the encounter of the risen Christ the incredulous Thomas . On the side walls of the church there are ten smaller stained glass windows, which were also designed by August Wanner and deal with the Ten Commandments . Another stained glass window is in the foyer of the church, which was created in 1999 by the artist José de Nève, Stans and shows St. Verena .

Relics of Saints Martin, Thomas Aquinas , Dominic , Karl Borromeo, Alphons von Liguori , Fidelis von Sigmaringen and Catherine von Siena are embedded in the large, dark marble altar . The tabernacle was made by the Swiss goldsmith Meinrad Burch-Korrodi (1897–1978) and originally stood on the high altar table, but was moved to the right aisle of the church when the interior of the church was redesigned in May 1965.

In the course of the redesign of the church interior in 1965, the original pulpit was replaced by an ambo and the baptismal font made of dark marble from 1959 was moved to the other side of the choir room. Since 2012 there has been an elm wood cross below the glass window in the choir, which was created by Joseph Egan. It has no joints or nails, but was carved out of a single tree slice. The left one of the original two side altars has been preserved. Above him is an almost life-size wooden sculpture of St. Joseph with the baby Jesus wearing a crown. This sculpture was created by the sculptor Johann Trojer. The statue of the Virgin Mary above the altar originally dedicated to the Blessed Mother on the opposite side was also made by him. When the interior of the church was redesigned in 1965, this statue of the Virgin was given to a church in the Zürcher Unterland or Zürcher Weinland.

On the wall under the organ gallery is the Way of the Cross, which was created by August Wanner in 1940 and consists of two mosaic friezes.

organ

View of the Metzler organ

In 1942, the first organ was built in the St. Martin Church , which was replaced in 1972 by the current instrument made by the organ building company Metzler , Dietikon . The organ initially had 22 registers . The company Goll, Lucerne rebuilt the organ in 2017 and expanded it by three registers (viola, Gedackt, violoncello) to 25 today. The instrument has a mechanical playing and register action , it has the following disposition :

I main work C – f 3
Quintad 16 ′
Praestant 8th'
Bourdon 8th'
Octave 4 ′
Pointed flute 4 ′
Nazard 2 23
Octave 2 ′
third 1 35
Mixture III 1'
Trumpet 8th'
II breastwork C – f 3
Wooden dacked 8th'
Principal 4 ′
Reed flute 4 ′
Gemshorn 2 ′
Fifth 1 13
cymbal 23
Vox humana 8th'
Pedals C – f 1
Sub bass 16 ′
Octave 8th'
Octave 4 ′
bassoon 16 ′
Trumpet 8th'

Appreciation

The Church of St. Martin is a remarkable architectural monument. Stylistically, it belongs to the moderately modern churches, which on the one hand rejected the principles of New Building and exposed concrete churches such as the Antoniuskirche in Basel, but which on the other hand also clearly stand out from those sacred buildings which, as part of historicism, were based on medieval architectural styles imitated. Next to the church of St. Martin in the so-called adds Landi style to that of the Swiss national exhibition was promoted in 1939 and the radical modernism tried to dampen by regional styles. Since the Church of St. Martin was built in a diaspora area, it was deliberately designed to be modest; this anticipates a concern that was formulated especially at the end of the 1960s, namely that churches should not appear dominant in the settlement image, since the church generally came under pressure at this time.

See also

literature

  • Guido Kolb: 100 years of St. Peter and Paul. Zurich 1974.
  • Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. Chur 1980.
  • Henri Truffer: Association of Roman Catholic Churches in the City of Zurich. Zurich 1989.
  • Cécile Brändli-Probst: Parish of St. Martin Zurich - Fluntern 1940–1990. Zurich 1990.
  • Robert Schönbächler: Churches and places of worship in the city of Zurich. New Year's Gazette Industriequartier / Aussersihl. Zurich 2012.
  • Fabrizio Brentini: The Catholic Church of St. Martin in Zurich-Fluntern. (Swiss Art Guide, No. 923, Series 93). Ed.  Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 2013, ISBN 978-3-03797-090-4 .
  • City of Zurich, Office for Urban Development (Ed.): Catholic Churches of the City of Zurich. Inventory of Monument Preservation of the City of Zurich. Zurich 2014.

Web links

Commons : St. Martin Zurich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ City of Zurich, Office for Urban Development (Ed.): Catholic Churches of the City of Zurich. Inventory of Monument Preservation of the City of Zurich. Zurich 2014. p. 162.
  2. ^ Homepage of the parish , section history. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  3. ^ Truffer: Association of Roman Catholic Churches in the City of Zurich. P. 190.
  4. Brentini: The Catholic Church of St. Martin in Zurich-Fluntern. P. 14.
  5. Information from the parish
  6. ^ City of Zurich, Office for Urban Development (Ed.): Catholic Churches of the City of Zurich. Inventory of Monument Preservation of the City of Zurich. Zurich 2014. p. 161.
  7. ^ Archives of the parish.
  8. ^ Catholic Church in the Canton of Zurich. Annual report 2017. p. 84.
  9. Brentini: The Catholic Church of St. Martin in Zurich-Fluntern. P. 15.
  10. Brentini: The Catholic Church of St. Martin in Zurich-Fluntern. P. 19.
  11. Johannes Birkner, quoted from the parish homepage , section on building history. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  12. ^ Rainald Fischer, in: 100 years of St. Peter and Paul , p. 197
  13. ^ Homepage of the parish , section building history
  14. Brentini: The Catholic Church of St. Martin in Zurich-Fluntern. Pp. 17-18.
  15. ^ Archives of the parish
  16. Schönbächler: Churches and Houses of God of the City of Zurich , p. 83
  17. ^ City of Zurich, Office for Urban Development (Ed.): Catholic Churches of the City of Zurich. Inventory of Monument Preservation of the City of Zurich. Zurich 2014. p. 166.
  18. Brentini: The Catholic Church of St. Martin in Zurich-Fluntern. Pp. 23-24.
  19. ^ Brändli-Probst: Parish St. Martin Zurich-Fluntern 1940–1990.
  20. Brentini: The Catholic Church of St. Martin in Zurich-Fluntern. P. 21.
  21. Brentini: The Catholic Church of St. Martin in Zurich-Fluntern. P. 33.
  22. ^ Archives of the parish.
  23. Brentini: The Catholic Church of St. Martin in Zurich-Fluntern envelope
  24. Brentini: The Catholic Church of St. Martin in Zurich-Fluntern. P. 36.
  25. Brentini: The Catholic Church of St. Martin in Zurich-Fluntern. P. 36

Coordinates: 47 ° 22 '42.2 "  N , 8 ° 33' 54"  E ; CH1903:  685062  /  248115