St. Nikolaus (Rüschlikon)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Church of St. Nicholas, view from the southwest
View from the Schloss-Strasse

The Church of St. Nikolaus is the Roman Catholic parish church of Rüschlikon in the Horgen district .

history

History and naming

In 1314, a St. Nikolaus chapel in Rüschlikon was first mentioned in a document. It was a branch of the parish Kilchberg ZH and went together with its mother parish in the years 1407-1408 to the monastery Kappel , from there after the Reformation in 1527 to Zurich . After the Reformation in the city of Zurich from 1523, the Catholic rite was banned in the communities belonging to Zurich. From then on, the St. Nicholas Chapel was used for Reformed church services. Today's Reformed Church in Rüschlikon emerged from the medieval chapel of St. Nikolaus .

The Edict of Tolerance of 1807 made it possible for the first time since the Reformation to hold Catholic services again, but initially only in the city of Zurich. The freedom of settlement and religious freedom of the Swiss federal state from 1848 made it possible for people from the Catholic areas of central and eastern Switzerland , but also from neighboring countries, to look for work and settle down in the canton of Zurich. The construction of the Zürichseebahn on the left bank and the resulting accelerated industrialization meant that Catholics began to settle in Rüschlikon again from the middle of the 19th century. The first Catholic church service in the region took place in Gattikon in 1864 , because a number of Catholic factory workers and families were based there. The parish of St. Marien Langnau-Gattikon , founded in 1880, initially included the Catholics of Thalwil and Rüschlikon. In 1881 the first Katholikentag in Zurich took place in Nidelbad , Rüschlikon. After the construction of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Adliswil in 1894, the Catholics from Rüschlikon were assigned to this newly established parish. When the parish of St. Felix and Regula Thalwil was established in 1899 , Rüschlikon was assigned to the nearer Thalwil parish.

Development and construction history

Only after the building boom of the 1950s did so many Catholics live in Rüschlikon that the desire for their own parish arose. When around 1000 Catholics were living in Rüschlikon in 1961, they asked the parish of Thalwil to offer regular Sunday services in Rüschlikon. The search for suitable building land for a Rüschlikon church also began. On March 10, 1963, the first Catholic mass since the Reformation took place in the singing hall of the secondary school building in Rüschlikon. From this point on, Sunday services were regularly celebrated in the secondary school building. In 1967 the land was purchased in Rüschlikon for a future Catholic church. From June 1969 Rüschlikon had its own priest as a pastor on site. At this point in time Rüschlikon was appointed parish vicariate, on January 1, 1971, parish rectorate. In 1971 a building competition for a church in Rüschlikon was announced. 43 projects were submitted. The jury awarded prizes to five projects, the one by architect Willi Egli , Zurich, called Arkus , which, in addition to the church on Schlossstrasse, also included buildings for the Reformed parish, the school and residential buildings up to Dorfstrasse , was pursued for implementation. When the parish assembly voted on December 9, 1974, the Arkus project was rejected, which meant that the construction of a Catholic church in Rüschlikon was postponed for years. From October 1977, preparatory work for a Catholic church building in Rüschlikon began again. On October 21, 1979, in a ballot of the parish assembly Thalwil-Rüschlikon, the new project for a Catholic church with 150 seats, including a parish center and parish apartment, which had been redimensioned by almost half, was accepted. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on September 29, 1980. On February 28, 1982, the Bishop of Chur , Johannes Vonderach inaugurated the St. Nikolaus Church in Rüschlikon. In 1997 St. Nikolaus Rüschlikon was made an independent parish. The inauguration took place as part of a festive divine service chaired by Auxiliary Bishop Peter Henrici . From 2017 to 2018 the church including the parish center was extensively renovated and technically refurbished.

The parish of St. Felix and Regula Thalwil together with the parish of St. Nikolaus Rüschlikon form a parish. With its 6,579 members (as of 2017), this is one of the larger Catholic parishes in the canton of Zurich.

Building description

Exterior

The church, realized by architect Benito Davi, is located on Schlossstrasse not far from the train station. The building does not have a church tower , as this was deleted when the project was redimensioned in 1974. The restrained exterior of the Church of St. Nicholas, so that it is only recognizable at second glance that it is a church, follows the architectural modesty that was common in Catholic church construction in the canton of Zurich at the time of construction. The parish churches of St. Mauritius (Regensdorf) or Heilig Geist (Zurich-Höngg) , which were built during this period, were designed with a similarly reserved design. Only a solid corner of the building with a concrete cross erected above it suggests the desire for a church tower in the Catholic church in Rüschlikon. Via a footpath and a foyer , the visitor can get from Schlossstrasse to the actual church.

Interior and artistic equipment

inside view
Looking north

The church of St. Nikolaus Rüschlikon is a polygonal concrete building that has both stained glass windows and light shafts in the roof. Bright daylight flows through the light shafts into the interior of the church. The 150 seats are set up in a semicircle around the altar island. As in the Church of St. Katharina (Zurich-Affoltern) , the floor is slightly sloping towards the altar , so that a good view of the liturgical events is also possible from the back rows of pews. The colored windows were designed by the artist Roman Candio and show various motifs from nature. The sculptures in the church ( Madonna and Child , the Risen One , tabernacle and altar) are works by Susana Polac, who also designed the Way of the Cross in the Church of St. Marien (Wädenswil) .

organ

Mathis organ from 1985

The organ was built by Mathis , Näfels, 1984. The organ was inaugurated on February 24, 1985. The instrument originally had 13 sounding registers . The veil boards are the work of Susana Polac, the organ front is by Benito Davi. In 1988 three more stops were built into the organ. In 2007 the pointed flute 4 ′ in the first manual was reworked to a Salicional 8 ′ and the sesquialtera register was given a preliminary print as a fifth from c .

I Manual C–
Tube bare 8th'
Salicional 8th'
Principal 4 ′
Sesquialtera 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ and 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
Forest flute 2 ′
Mixture III 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
II Manual C–
Dumped 8th'
Reed flute 4 ′
Principal 2 ′
Larigot 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Zimbel III 1'
Dulcian 8th'
Tremulant
Pedals C–
Sub bass 16 ′
Praestant flute 8th'
Choral bass 4 ′
prong 8th'

literature

  • Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. Chur 1980.
  • Hans Bächer: Catholic parish St. Felix and Regula Thalwil 1899-1999. The path of change. Thalwil 1998.

Web links

Commons : Nikolaus Rüschlikon  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. P. 240.
  2. ↑ Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. Pp. 155-157 and 240.
  3. ^ Hans Bächer: Catholic parish St. Felix and Regula Thalwil 1899-1999. The path of change. Pp. 100-101.
  4. ^ Hans Bächer: Catholic parish St. Felix and Regula Thalwil 1899-1999. The path of change. P. 102.
  5. ^ Hans Bächer: Catholic parish St. Felix and Regula Thalwil 1899-1999. The path of change. Pp. 106-107.
  6. ↑ Episcopal Ordinariate Chur (ed.): Schematism of the Diocese of Chur. P. 240.
  7. ^ Hans Bächer: Catholic parish St. Felix and Regula Thalwil 1899-1999. The path of change. Pp. 113 and 117.
  8. ^ Hans Bächer: Catholic parish St. Felix and Regula Thalwil 1899-1999. The path of change. P. 125.
  9. ^ Hans Bächer: Catholic parish St. Felix and Regula Thalwil 1899-1999. The path of change. P. 128.
  10. ^ Hans Bächer: Catholic parish St. Felix and Regula Thalwil 1899-1999. The path of change. P. 161.
  11. ↑ Catholic Church in the Canton of Zurich (Ed.): Annual Report 2017. p. 84. With 1,457 members (as of 2017), the Rüschlikon parish is one of the canton's small parishes.
  12. ^ Hans Bächer: Catholic parish St. Felix and Regula Thalwil 1899-1999. The path of change. P. 169.
  13. ^ Hans Bächer: Catholic parish St. Felix and Regula Thalwil 1899-1999. The path of change. P. 129
  14. ^ Hans Bächer: Catholic parish St. Felix and Regula Thalwil 1899-1999. The path of change. P. 129
  15. ^ Hans Bächer: Catholic parish St. Felix and Regula Thalwil 1899-1999. The path of change. P. 139
  16. ^ Hans Bächer: Catholic parish St. Felix and Regula Thalwil 1899-1999. The path of change. P. 146.
  17. ↑ Information from the parish archive

Coordinates: 47 ° 18 '35.04 "  N , 8 ° 33' 20.97"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred eighty-four thousand four hundred seventy-seven  /  240 474