St. Mauritius (Bern-Bethlehem)

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The Mauritius Church, on the Waldmannstrasse side

The Church of St. Mauritius is the parish church of the Roman Catholic parish of St. Mauritius in Ackerli in the Bernese Bethlehem district, which was established in 1969 . Their area originally belonged to the parish of St. Antonius in Bümpliz . The current church replaces the Fastenopfer church built there in 1968 and demolished in 1987 .

History and parish structure

In accordance with the decree of the Grand Council of March 8, 1939, the three parishes of Bern, Dreifaltigkeit , St. Antonius and St. Marien received the status of a state-recognized parish and became the "Roman Catholic general parish of the city of Bern and the cantonal area attached to it". The sprawling Antonius parish of Bümpliz has since been divided several times. In 1965 the first steps towards the separation of the Bethlehem district began, and in 1969 the parish of St. Mauritius was founded with the provisional Fastenopfer Church. Before the construction of the first church, services, meetings and events took place in the Tscharnergut restaurant. The reason for founding a new parish was the population growth in the quarter. Many new housing developments were built and many people moved to Bethlehem. Meanwhile, the emergency church has been replaced by a new church. Recently the parishes of St. Mauritius and St. Anton have been working closely together again. In addition to the Bern-Bethlehem district, the St. Mauritius parish includes the communities of Ferenbalm , Frauenkappelen , Golaten , Gurbrü , Mühleberg , Wileroltigen and Wohlen without the localities of Uettligen and Oberdettigen .

First church

The Fastenopferkirche St. Johannes in Münsingen . The identical church of St. Mauritius existed from 1968 to 1987

The Fastenopfer Church, built in 1968, was one of the emergency churches designed by the architect Hanns Anton Brütsch . Because of the high expenditure for urgently needed maintenance work, it was decided to build a new church in the 1980s. Contrary to the original idea of ​​reusing the components at another location, the demolition material had to be disposed of due to a lack of interested parties.

New building of the church

View from the east

Between 1987 and 1989, the architect Willi Egli from Zurich, known for urban planning, built the new church center. On the tram line to the nearby Westside and Waldmannstrasse, between single-family houses and the adjoining Acherli dormitory and the high-rise buildings on the other side of the street, the church gives the district an identity, also because of its restrained architecture. Like an ark, the church area should symbolically offer visitors protection and refuge. The building is made of prefabricated exposed concrete elements and Bredero concrete blocks as a skeleton structure with pent roofs at different inclinations. The roof sections are clad with titanium-zinc sheet. The rectory forms the western end with the window facing the garden. The property is partially surrounded by high hedges and bushes. The access to the parking lots and the entrance to the adjacent church courtyard are from the old Murtenstrasse. It is open on both sides and from there the rectory and the secretariat are accessible. The walkways on both sides connect the church with the outbuildings.

Interior and artistic equipment

Inside with chancel
Altar, frontal view

The community hall is connected to the foyer as the lowest room with a sound-insulated lifting wall, which can be opened to the church if necessary. The church itself ends with the retracted choir to the east. The room receives daylight through the windows in the highest wall section of the rood screen. The increase in the roof structure makes the hierarchical importance of the rooms visible. The pews are arranged in a semicircle around the raised altar. The wooden roof structure rests on concrete buttresses over the square designed room. The furnishings with altar, ambo, baptismal font and tabernacle are made of natural stone, wood and metal. The organ is built into the right side wall. The tabernacle is set into the niche-shaped rood screen wall behind the altar, and a prayer room concludes the sequence of rooms.

Bell jar

The bell of the previous church with the strike note as ′ was hung in the bell carrier of the new church after a revision. It was cast by H. Rüetschi AG in 1968.

organ

Organ prospectus

In 1990 the organ was built by Orgelbau Lifart AG, Emmen, with 19 stops on two manuals and a pedal . It has slide chests with mechanical play and stop action .

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
Principal 8th'
Reed flute 8th'
Viol 8th'
octave 4 ′
Night horn 4 ′
Nasat 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
Super octave 2 ′
third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
Mixture IV 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
II Positive C-g 3
Dumped 8th'
Principal 4 ′
Coupling flute 4 ′
Forest flute 2 ′
Scharff III 2 ′
Krummhorn 8th'
Pedal C – f 1
Sub bass 16 ′
Flute bass 8th'
Octave 4 ′
prong 8th'

literature

  • Fabrizio Brentini, Swiss St. Luke Society for Art and Church: Building for the Church. Catholic church building of the 20th century in Switzerland . Lucerne 6: Edition SSL, cop. 1994, Lucerne 1994. Diss. Phil. I Zurich, 1993/94.
  • Zita Caviezel et al .: Art guide through Switzerland . tape 3 : Basel-Country, Basel City, Bern, Solothurn . GSK, Bern 2006, ISBN 3-906131-97-1 .
  • Gabriela Hanke et al .: Catholic Bern from 1799 to 1999. A stopover . Total Roman Catholic parish of Bern and the surrounding area, Bern 1999.

See also

List of Roman Catholic churches in the canton of Bern

Web links

Commons : St. Mauritius (Bern-Bethlehem)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grand Council resolution on the delimitation of the parishes. In: Website of the Government Council of the Canton of Bern, April 4, 2012 (PDF; 111 kB).
  2. ^ The bell pictures, sound recordings and text: Robin Marti on YouTube
  3. ^ Organ profile Catholic Church St. Mauritius Bethlehem BE. In: Organ directory Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Retrieved May 10, 2018.

Coordinates: 46 ° 56 '57.6 "  N , 7 ° 23' 6.3"  E ; CH1903:  five hundred and ninety-five thousand nine hundred and twenty-four  /  199805