St. Mauritius (Regensdorf)
The St. Mauritius Church is the Roman Catholic parish church of Regensdorf , the largest community in the Furttal .
history
Background and naming
The Nikolaus chapel was built in Regensdorf around 1200 . A document from the Bishop of Constance from 1280 mentions the St. Nicholas chapel as belonging to the parish of Höngg , whose church was dedicated to St. Mauritius . That is the reason why the Catholic Church in Regensdorf has St. Mauritius as its patron saint.
In addition to this first church, there was a second chapel in Regensdorf, which should originally have been an own church of the Regensbergers . The two churches gave rise to the development of two parts of the village in Regensdorf, the Vorderdorf and the Hinterdorf.
After the Reformation in 1524, the village church with tower and nave was built in 1558/1559 on the site of what was then the second chapel . This was torn down in 1704/1705 and replaced by the nave of the reformed church that still exists today. The Nikolauskapelle however, fell into oblivion and was as Schopf used. In 1956 the Nikolauskapelle was restored and used again for church purposes.
When the construction of the Regensdorf prison began in 1898 , up to 400 Italian workers were employed in Regensdorf. Together with their families, Regensdorf counted 700 Catholics at that time. That is why a Catholic service was held every Sunday during the construction of the prison until 1901. Later there were services in Regensdorf only for the Catholic prisoners, from 1942 every Sunday.
The Catholics living on the left side of the Furttal belonged to the parish Herz Jesu (Zurich-Oerlikon) since 1894 and to the parish St. Katharina (Zurich-Affoltern) since 1928 . The Catholics living on the right side of the valley initially belonged to the parish of Bülach , from 1924 to the parish of Niederhasli and finally to the parish of Dielsdorf until the parish of Regensdorf was founded .
After the Second World War , Regensdorf developed from a farming village to an industrial location . In 1950 around 300 Catholics lived in the area of today's parish, in 1960 there were already around 1400 and another 150 seasonal workers. The Catholic Church responded to the influx of Catholic residents in Regensdorf by setting up an emergency church in a cellar from 1955 .
With 10,257 members (as of 2017), the parish of St. Mauritius Regensdorf is one of the largest Catholic parishes in the canton of Zurich.
Building history
As early as 1937, the Chur diocesan cultural association had acquired a building site in Regensdorf on behalf of the parish of St. Katharina (Zurich-Affoltern). When the building of a church in the Furttal seemed more and more urgent in the 1950s, Vicar General Alfred Teobaldi suggested that only an emergency church be erected on the building site in Regensdorf at first due to lack of money. However, this was rejected by the members of the newly established church foundation. Despite modest own resources, the ground-breaking ceremony took place on July 19, 1959 for the first parish church of St. Mauritius, including the solid-built rectory . This first church building was built by the architect Richard Krieg, from the beginning with the intention of using this place of worship as a parish hall after the construction of an actual church. On June 5, 1960, the place of worship was inaugurated.
On January 14, 1963, St. Mauritius Regensdorf was appointed a parish by decree by the Chur bishop Johannes Vonderach and separated from the parish of St. Katharina together with Dällikon , Dänikon and Hüttikon . The parishes of Buchs , Otelfingen and Boppelsen , which previously belonged to the parish of Dielsdorf, were also added to the parish of St. Mauritius.
In June 1967 the parish of St. Mauritius in Otelfingen acquired land for the construction of another church, which, however, has not yet been realized.
Between 1973 and 1974, today's St. Mauritius Church was built according to plans by the architect Benedikt Huber . The inauguration of the church and the center took place on December 15, 1974 by the Chur bishop Johannes Vonderach.
On November 29, 2016, the parish assembly voted on structural measures for the church and the parish center. The planned redesign of the interior was rejected, but the comprehensive renovation of the church and parish center was approved.
Building description
The parish center with the church of St. Mauritius is located in a new district in Regensdorf. It stands inconspicuously on Schulstrasse near an old people's and nursing home and a school complex. The building looks low and the lack of a church tower reinforces the impression of a reserved church building. Only the bell in the roof turret and the concrete cross attached to the wall below reveal that this building is a church center. The architect deliberately avoided monumentality in this church building. This reluctance to design can be explained by two facts: On the one hand, the intention was to deliberately design the church built in the diaspora area to be discreet. On the other hand, the churches came under general pressure in the 1960s, which is why they wanted to build churches without a dominant effect in the settlement image.
First you get to the foyer under the roof turret with the bell . This not only forms the anteroom to the church and the other rooms, but due to its size is designed so that visitors to the church center can meet in the foyer before and after the events.
The rooms of the parish center are not only used for church events, but are also available for cultural and communal events for groups, associations and private individuals. A public catering business was therefore part of the center from the outset, which is to be further strengthened by the renovation in 2013. One expression of this multifunctionality of the parish center is that the church is not referred to as such, but as a community space . Nevertheless, the importance and dignity of the church interior should be emphasized architecturally. Attempts were made to achieve this through the materials used, the lighting and the interior fittings.
During the construction of today's church, the first church was converted into the large hall of the parish center as planned and the first rectory became the parish office. The premises of the first construction phase fit seamlessly into today's church center. Today's parsonage was rebuilt together with the parish center in 1972/1973.
Roof turret and bell
The first church in Regensdorf received a bell in November 1960 that was attached to a free-standing support. This bell was a gift from women in the parish who had earned the cost of this bell by cleaning it. This is also explained by the inscription on the bell: "Omnia vincit labor improbus" - You can overcome all difficulties if you are not afraid of hard work.
This bell was cast in June 1960 by the bell foundry Emil Eschmann , Rickenbach near Wil SG. It was supposed to be the smallest bell of a four-part chime with the tone sequence es '- ges' - as '- b', which however was never realized. Today the bell is located in the roof turret above the entrance portal of the church center.
| number | Weight | volume | dedication |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 435 kg | b 1 | St. Verena |
Interior and artistic equipment
The church building, which is simple in itself, received some artistic elements: In the church, the altar and the ambo (both made of wood) show that the room is mainly intended for church services despite its multifunctionality. The tabernacle was set into a supporting pillar as a sign that the entire life of the parish is borne by God. The back wall of the church is decorated with a relief designed by the sculptor Peter Meister. The light is guided through window openings in the roof so that the light falls into the church from above. Window openings were made in the right side wall of the church, but they do not contain any church windows.
The chapel adjoins the church and is separated from the church by a dark red sliding wall . In the chapel there is a second tabernacle on the same supporting pillar as in the church. The altar of the chapel was modeled on the altar of the church.
Because it was originally intended that the church as a multifunctional common room should not be exclusively the church, the chapel was designed as the actual parish church. That is why there is not in the altar of the church but under the altar of the chapel a slab embedded in the floor with the relics of companions of St. Mauritius, which the Abbey of Saint-Maurice gave to the parish of Regensdorf on the occasion of the construction of the previous building in 1960 . This base plate is also marked with the date 1960. The fact that the baptismal font of St. Mauritius is not in the church, but in the chapel, indicates that this room, accessible through its own outside entrance, was intended as the actual parish church.
The baptismal font comes from Peter Meister, the contemporary statue of Mary with child, which is located in the chapel in a window niche below the roof, was created by Franz Purtschert.
Organs
So far, four organs have been used for the church services in the parish of St. Mauritius: The first instrument that sounded for the first time in the previous church (today's parish hall) at Christmas 1963 was a small organ, which, however, was replaced in June 1964 by an organ built by Georges Schamberger was replaced. This second organ remained in the first church until 1975 when the instrument made by Orgelbau Geneva AG was installed in today's church. Then the Schamberger organ was moved to the chapel, where it served until 2016. The Barmettler organ has been installed in the chapel since 2016
Schamberger organ (1964 to 2016)
Georges Schamberger's organ had the following disposition :
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- Coupling: I / P
Organ from Orgelbau Geneva AG (since 1975)
The organ of the church comes from Orgelbau Geneva AG and was inaugurated on June 7, 1975.
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- Coupling : II / I, I / P, II / P
- Game and stop action : purely mechanical
Barmettler organ (since 2016)
In 2016, an instrument was installed in the chapel to replace the Schamberger organ, which had previously been in the Schenkon LU church. This organ was built in 1965 by Ernst W. Barmettler in the workshop of Orgelbau Walter Graf, Sursee. Later the company Orgelbau Walter Graf bought the instrument and rented it to various parishes. In 1987 the Barmettler organ was permanently built in the church center of Schenkon until it was replaced by a new organ there in 2016 and installed in the chapel in Regensdorf.
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- Normal coupling: I / P
literature
- Roman Catholic parish Regensdorf (ed.): Catholic parish center Furttal. History, planning, execution. Regensdorf 1972.
- 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.
- Fabrizio Brentini: The Catholic Church of St. Martin in Zurich-Fluntern. Society for Swiss Art History, Bern 2013.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Roman Catholic parish Regensdorf (ed.): Catholic parish center Furttal. History, planning, execution. P. 7.
- ^ Article in Wikipedia on Regensdorf.
- ↑ Wikipedia article on Herz Jesu (Zurich-Oerlikon).
- ^ Parish gazette of Zurich and the surrounding area of June 19, 1960.
- ^ Catholic Church in the Canton of Zurich. Annual report 2017. p. 83.
- ↑ a b c Information from the parish.
- ^ Roman Catholic parish Regensdorf (ed.): Catholic parish center Furttal. History, planning, execution. P. 8.
- ^ Archives of the parish of St. Mauritius Regensdorf.
- ^ Henri Truffer: Association of Roman Catholic Parishes of the City of Zurich. P. 186, and Roman Catholic parish Regensdorf (ed.): Catholic parish center Furttal. History, planning, execution. Pp. 8-10.
- ↑ a b Roman Catholic parish Regensdorf (ed.): Catholic parish center Furttal. History, planning, execution. P. 10.
- ^ Roman Catholic parish Regensdorf (ed.): Catholic parish center Furttal. History, planning, execution. P. 15.
- ^ Roman Catholic parish Regensdorf (ed.): Catholic parish center Furttal. History, planning, execution. P. 28 and 30.
- ↑ Zürcher Unterländer from December 1, 2016, page 5.
- ^ Website of the parish, section parish center. ( Memento from October 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Brentini: The Catholic Church of St. Martin in Zurich-Fluntern. P. 36.
- ↑ a b c Architect Benedikt Huber, in: Roman Catholic Church Community Regensdorf (ed.): Catholic Parish Center Furttal. History, planning, execution. P. 18.
- ^ Roman Catholic parish Regensdorf (ed.): Catholic parish center Furttal. History, planning, execution. P. 11.
- ↑ See archives of the parish of St. Mauritius
- ↑ a b c Roman Catholic parish Regensdorf (ed.): Catholic parish center Furttal. History, planning, execution. P. 20.
- ^ Organ directory Switzerland and Liechtenstein, section Catholic Chapel St. Mauritius Regensdorf. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
- ^ Organ directory Switzerland and Liechtenstein, section Catholic Church Center Schenkon LU. Retrieved September 20, 2017.