St. Mauritius (Oberengstringen)
The Church of St. Mauritius is the Roman Catholic parish church in Oberengstringen in the canton of Zurich . The parish belonging to it is responsible for the places Ober- and Unterengstringen .
history
History and naming
The name Enstelingen appears for the first time in a deed of donation from the year 870. At that time there was already a small field chapel in Engstringen, which was dedicated to St. Verena . Here were measuring read and funerals held, but she was from the parish church Höngg care of. The church was supervised by the Bishop of Constance . After the Reformation in 1523, the Verena chapel in Engstringen was profaned and then used as a residential building and warehouse until it was finally demolished in 1897. The Reformed parish of Höngg remained responsible for pastoral care in Oberengstringen into the 20th century.
When the first Catholics settled in Engstringen in the course of industrialization in the second half of the 19th century, they initially belonged to the parish of St. Peter and Paul in Zurich - Aussersihl . From 1900, Engstringen's Catholics were subordinated to the newly founded Heilig Kreuz parish in Altstetten , and in November 1923 to the parish of St. Joseph in Schlieren . In 1940 Oberengstringen came to the newly founded parish of the Holy Spirit in Zurich- Höngg , Unterengstringen and Weiningen remained with the parish of St. Josef Schlieren. On July 21, 1961, the Engstringen parish rectorate was founded and in late autumn 1963 it was raised to an independent parish. Weiningen, which still belonged to Engstringen when the parish was established, was separated from Engstringen in 1972 when the parish of St. Johann Geroldswil was founded and assigned to the new Geroldswil parish.
The parish church of Engstringen was dedicated to St. Mauritius consecrated because the Höngg Church was a Mauritius church in the pre-Reformation period. The neighboring parish of St. Mauritius in Regensdorf also has St. Mauritius is the namesake, as Regensdorf also belonged to the parish of Höngg in the Middle Ages.
Development of the parish and building history of the church
The expansion of the means of transport in the Limmattal with the Spanish-Brötli-Bahn and the Limmattal-Strassenbahn Zürich - Schlieren - Unterengstringen - Weiningen did not affect the municipality of Oberengstringen. Century. After the incorporation of the neighboring Höngg into Zurich in 1934 and after the end of the Second World War , however, an even more stormy development began, which Oberengstringen even set the Swiss record for growth in the 1950s. As early as 1946, those responsible in the Heilig-Geist parish in Zurich-Höngg recognized the impending development of Oberengstringen and therefore founded a St. Mauritius Foundation with the aim of building a church in Oberengstringen. The St. Mauritius Foundation was able to acquire the building site on Zürcherstrasse cheaply from a long-established Catholic from Oberengstringen. The first Catholic service in Oberengstringen since the Reformation did not take place until September 1, 1957 in the chanting hall of the Goldschmied schoolhouse and was organized by the Heilig-Geist parish in Zurich-Höngg. The services continued in this singing hall until moving into their own church in 1964. Services were celebrated on weekdays in the air raid shelter of the Halde school building . In 1960 the architect Fritz Metzger was commissioned to design a preliminary project for a church, a rectory and club rooms. On July 2, 1962, the excavation of the construction pit for the church began, on March 31, 1963 the foundation stone was laid by Vicar General Alfred Teobaldi and on Palm Sunday 1964 the church could be provisionally occupied. The Bishop of Chur , Johannes Vonderach , consecrated the church on May 31, 1964.
The parish of St. Mauritius with its 3,278 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, including the parish center and parsonage, rises up on Zürcherstrasse on a narrow, south-sloping site. In order to shield the church from the noise of the busy street, the church was designed in such a way that a closed wall was created against Zürcherstrasse for reasons of noise protection. Below the church are the rooms of the parish center, to the south of this large building, separated by a forecourt, follows the parsonage.
The bell tower is located on the northern side of the area directly on Zürcherstrasse. With its white concrete cross clearly visible, it shows the location of the Catholic Church from afar. On February 8, 1964, the consecration and the lifting of the bells in the tower took place by the school youth from Ober-, Unterengstringen and Weiningen. The bells were tuned to the opening notes of the Te Deum .
| number | Weight | volume | dedication | inscription |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1000 kg | f | Trinity | Grace to you and peace from God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. |
| 2 | 620 kg | as | Maria | My soul exalts the Lord high, in God my Savior my spirit rejoices. |
| 3 | 420 kg | b | Angel | Holy, holy, holy. |
Interior and artistic equipment
The church was built from concrete , which, as the dominant material, gives the church a sober and clear character. Since the church walls facing Zürcherstrasse have no windows to keep the noise of the street away from the church, the light is guided through a complex structure of skylights in the flat roof of the church. The windows are constructed in such a way that the light changes depending on the time of day, but always falls subtly into the church, giving it a mystical character. The contrast between closed walls and broken roof is reinforced by the columns that direct the view upwards. To the south and at the church portals, the church has individual stained glass windows of different shapes, which set colored accents in the otherwise uniformly light church. These church windows were created by the artist Paul Stöckli, Stans . However, these stained glass windows only appear to the faithful when they turn to the eastern church front to leave the church.
Just like the church of St. Felix and Regula in Zurich-Hard, where the architect Fritz Metzger first turned against the concept of a road church in 1949, the church of St. Mauritius is also a place of worship which, as a transverse building, surrounds the believers Assembles the altar and thereby clarifies the requirements of the liturgy constitution of the Second Vatican Council in the floor plan of the church. The architect Fritz Metzger names the main features of this church with the following words: the broad, uniform space, a natural community structure, the sober sacredness, the light and the silence.
The altar area is located on the western side of the church and was designed by the artist Albert Schilling , Arlesheim, as the center of an Easter church, who wanted to make the faithful more aware of the connection between sacrifice on the cross , resurrection , redemption , baptism and preaching . The design abandons the traditionally symmetrical form arranged on an axis and instead chooses a more exciting, asymmetrical room design that does justice to the individual functions. The altar as the center of the community stands in the center of the raised altar area. From the beginning, the altar was designed as a people's altar and turned towards the community. The proportions of the altar indicate that it is not only a sacrament table, but also a sacrificial stone on which the sacrifice of Christ is understood. In order to emphasize the greater weight of the word worship demanded by the Second Vatican Council , the ambo was set up as a weighty counterpart to the altar on the left side of the sanctuary. The shape of the anvil makes the three dimensions of height, width and depth clearly visible and thus refers to the comprehensive nature of the doctrine of salvation, the word of God. Because the priest's bench was not placed behind the altar, but on the right-hand side behind the altar, the priest does not come to the altar until the celebration of the Eucharist, which in turn emphasizes the importance of the word worship. The baptismal font is not in the back of the church, but on the right side of the altar. In this way, acceptance into the ecclesial community through baptism is also moved spatially into the center of the liturgical event. Originally the place for the Easter candle was intended on the baptismal font. Later, a dove was placed in place of the Easter candle as a symbol of the Holy Spirit . The baptismal font lid and the doors of the tabernacle are designed in a similar way and thus refer to the theological connection between the sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist. With the trapezoidal shape of the baptismal font and holy water basin at the church portal, the artist Albert Schilling clarifies the connection between these two elements and reminds us that the believer should remember his own baptism with the sign of the cross with holy water when entering the church. Since the spatial concept of the church is designed to focus the attendees' attention on the sacred events in the chancel, restraint was exercised in the rest of the decoration of the church.
Tabernacle and changes to the sanctuary
The tabernacle originally stood in the center of the altar table. The then Bishop of Chur, Johannes Vonderach, wanted the tabernacle to be on the altar in 1964, although the Second Vatican Council also made other places in the church possible for the tabernacle to be placed. The tabernacle has a deep shape so that the priest, turned towards the people, could still look over the tabernacle to the believers. In addition, the tabernacle has two doors so that it could be opened from both sides of the altar. The tabernacle could be used for the Tridentine Mass (in Latin, turned away from the people) as well as for the form of mass used today (in the national language, turned towards the people). In 1976 the tabernacle was removed from the altar and placed on the sideboard by the font. After various considerations, the current situation was created so that today the tabernacle is on the left side of the altar on the wall.
In the original design of the chancel, there was a sideboard between the priest's bench and the baptismal font, where the baptismal utensils and the holy oils were kept. When, according to Can 847 CIC, a new storage location had to be found for the holy oils, the idea arose in 2003 to create a dove on the baptismal font instead of the Easter candle, which serves as a storage location for the holy oils. It is a bronze dove with a door on the back through which the sacred oils enter the dove for storage. The original sideboard between the priest's bench and the font was then removed.
Tapestries
From the inauguration of the church in 1964 until the first renovation in 1988, there was a tapestry on the front wall of the church , which was designed by Paul Stöckli, Stans, and executed by Sister Augustina Flüeler from the St. Clara Stans Institute. This first tapestry was replaced by two newer tapestries, which represent the most important artistic elements of the church renovation in the years 1984–1988. The textile designer Vroni Unseld, Lucerne, made the two carpets based on a design by the artist Roman Candio , Solothurn . The bare concrete walls had made the worshipers want to make the church warmer and more cozy during the renovation from 1984 to 1988. The new lighting, a light coat of paint on the walls and the new tapestries with their colors should contribute to this.
Glass altarpiece
During the renovation of the church in 2014, the church received an altarpiece made of stained glass, which replaces the tapestries. The artist Diether F. Domes, Eriskirch designed the altarpiece, which shows a divided host in the middle, which refers to the celebration of the Eucharist as the center of community life. In the lower area of the altarpiece, the water and the earth are shown in blue-green tones. The water is reminiscent of Christian baptism, which leads to Christianity and membership in the community. The altarpiece consists of 10 individual glass panels, which were put together by the company Mäder, Zurich and installed in the church. Since it was not possible to break through the wall for a glass window for structural reasons, the altarpiece is illuminated by LED lights. These can be dimmed as required to adapt the window to the desired mood.
organ
The organ in the St. Mauritius Church was built in 1964 by the organ building company Späth , which has been based in Rapperswil since 1909, under the direction of Joseph Späth. He was the founder of the second generation of the company. Joseph Späth paid particular attention to strict geometrical housing shapes and rated the electrics as a groundbreaking advance in organ building. So the organ was provided by the Catholic Church in Oberengstringen with a corresponding case and an electric game and stop mechanism. Unfortunately, the original console of the Späth organ was prone to failure, which is why it was replaced with a modern one during the church renovation in 1988 by Hubert Senn, Unterengstringen. The pedal received a new, powerful and round 16 'bassoon part and the first manual was given an 8' shawm instead of a 16 'quintatone. Instead of three free combinations, the organ now received 16 typesetting combinations, which makes registration easier. In 1999 the instrument was thoroughly revised by Gerhard Fahrni, Oberurnen .
The organ's disposition is:
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- Coupling : II / I, II / P, I / P as rockers and pistons
- Playing aids : 16 setter combinations (2 × 8) as push buttons and pistons, tutti as push button and piston, register crescendo with 15 levels, single tongue storage as rockers, tongue down as piston, automatic ped. as a push button
Weekday chapel
The weekday chapel is located on the eastern corner of the church and offers space for smaller services and devotions. The tabernacle and the cross were created by Godi Hirschi , Emmenbrücke. A Pietà from the middle of the 17th century completes the altar area of the weekday chapel. Apparently a cheap plaster cast, the Pietà had stood on a screed for years and had come to Engstringen via the rectory of the mother parish Heilig-Geist. A restorer exposed the precious wood carving and restored the original coloring of the Pietà. This figure underlines the Easter character of the Church of St. Mauritius, as the eyes of Our Lady reveal a premonition of the resurrection.
In 1976 the original design of the chapel was adapted to the needs of the community. The pews were replaced by chairs and the wall altar was torn down. A table was made from the stone of the broken altar, on which the Eucharist is celebrated today. The tabernacle has been moved to one side so that the priest does not stand directly in front of the tabernacle during the service. With the stone from the broken altar, a new sideboard by the baptismal font, the sideboard by the ambo and the construction of the tabernacle on the back wall of the church were also created for the church.
The organ in the weekday chapel was built in 1963 by Th. Kuhn AG in Männedorf as a series instrument. The organ came to the weekday chapel of the parish church in Oberengstringen in 1994, for which one of the confessionals was cleared out. The instrument has the following disposition:
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(B = bass; D = treble; division h 0 / c 1 )
literature
- Catholic parish Engstringen (ed.): St. Mauritius Engstringen. Festschrift on the occasion of the consecration of the church. Engstringen 1964.
- Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. Chur 1980.
- Katholische Kirchgemeinde Engstringen (ed.): 25 years of the parish and church of St. Mauritius Engstringen. Engstringen 1989.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Website of the municipality of Oberengstringen, section history. Retrieved November 9, 2013.
- ↑ Bischöfliches Ordinariat Chur (ed.): Schematismus des Bistums Chur , p. 205.
- ↑ Bischöfliches Ordinariat Chur (ed.): Schematismus des Bistums Chur , p. 209.
- ↑ See on this: Website of the municipality of Oberengstringen. Retrieved November 9, 2013
- ^ Website of the municipality of Oberengstringen, section history. Retrieved November 9, 2013.
- ↑ Bischöfliches Ordinariat Chur (ed.): Schematismus des Bistums Chur , p. 205.
- ↑ Catholic Church in the Canton of Zurich: Annual Report 2017 , p. 83.
- ^ Catholic parish Engstringen (ed.): St. Mauritius Engstringen. Festschrift on the occasion of the consecration, p. 14.
- ^ Catholic parish Engstringen (ed.): St. Mauritius Engstringen. Festschrift on the occasion of the consecration, pp. 8–11.
- ^ Catholic parish Engstringen (ed.): St. Mauritius Engstringen. Festschrift on the occasion of the church consecration, pp. 14-16.
- ↑ Katholische Kirchgemeinde Engstringen (ed.): 25 years parish and church St. Mauritius Engstringen. , Pp. 6-7.
- ↑ Information from Bernhard Kramm, pastor of St. Mauritius Oberengstringen for many years.
- ^ Catholic parish Engstringen (ed.): St. Mauritius Engstringen. Festschrift on the occasion of the church consecration, pp. 18–20.
- ↑ Katholische Kirchgemeinde Engstringen (ed.): 25 years parish and church St. Mauritius Engstringen. , Pp. 16 and 22.
- ^ Article in the Limmattaler Zeitung. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
- ^ Catholic parish Engstringen (ed.): St. Mauritius Engstringen. Festschrift on the occasion of the consecration, p. 22.
- ^ Catholic parish Engstringen (ed.): St. Mauritius Engstringen. Festschrift on the occasion of the consecration, p. 20.
Coordinates: 47 ° 24 '34 " N , 8 ° 27' 39.2" E ; CH1903: six hundred seventy-seven thousand one hundred fifty-four / 251461