Aarau City Church

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Aarau City Church

The Aarau City Church is a reformed church building in Aarau , the capital of the canton of Aargau in Switzerland . The late Gothic building in Aarau's old town presents itself as a three-aisled basilica and was built between 1471 and 1478 according to the architecture of the mendicant order . The town church is classified as a cultural asset of national importance . It belongs to the Reformed Parish of Aarau in the Reformed Regional Church of Aargau , but is also used by the Christian Catholic parish.

history

Aarau and the city church in the Topographia Germaniae by Matthäus Merian (1642)

Excavations in 1936 and 1959/60 indicate that there was a church in Aarau's urban area as early as the 10th and 11th centuries. It was located in today's Telliquartier on a ford across the Aare and seems to have been carefully removed in the second half of the 13th century, only the foundation remained. A papal tithe register from 1275 shows that Aarau again had a church at that time, but that it was subordinate to the parish of Suhr . The building was in the same location as today's church, had a single nave and a north-east facing, three-sided closed choir . The church tower was added in 1426/27 .

In 1471 the construction of today's church began under the direction of foreman Sebastian Gisel from Laufen . Gisel left the tower of the previous church and included it in the new building. The stone blocks required for the construction were mainly demolition material from Gösgen Castle and were transported to the construction site by barge on the Aare. In 1478 the work was completed and in July 1479 the auxiliary bishop of Constance consecrated the church in honor of the Virgin Mary . During the Reformation in 1528, the twelve altars and the pictures in the church were destroyed. In 1663, foreman Simon Erismann raised the church tower, which in the same year also received a tower clock .

In 1891 the interior received neo-Gothic decorations, which were removed again in 1939/40. From 1803 the town church was temporarily available to the Roman Catholic parish, and since 1876 to the Christian Catholic parish. A comprehensive renovation took place in 1965/66.

Church building

Interior of the city church

The city church is located on the north-western edge of Aarau's old town, directly on the edge of a steep rock head. The Fountain of Justice stands on the church square . The late Gothic church building with white plastered facades presents itself as a three-aisled basilica under a long gable roof . Here, the extending with a pointed roof turret provided first to the enclosed on three sides chorus. The adjacent side aisles are stepped from the nave by pent roofs , so that the upper aisles of the central nave are free.

As is usual with churches of the mendicant order type, the facade is kept simple. Both the pointed arch windows of the side aisles and the lancet windows of the choir are clad in shell limestone and have Gothic tracery at the top . The roof turret, on the tip of which stands a cock, is a reconstruction from 1965 and contains a small bell. Belt cornices divide the church tower taken over from the previous building into six floors. The bell cage is housed on the top floor , the seven bells were made between 1862 and 1899 by the Aarau bell foundry H. Rüetschi . The top part of the church tower has baroque style elements.

Corresponding to the clear lines of the exterior, the interior is also kept sober and appears solemn. The nave and choir are separated by a rood screen that takes up the entire width of the church and consists of seven wide, pointed arcades . The altars originally stood under the yokes until they were removed during the Reformation. Arcades also run along both longitudinal axes of the central nave.

Furnishing

Stained glass window in the choir

The Aarau town church is known for its stained glass windows . The six windows in the choir are by the artist Felix Hoffmann . He created three windows between 1940 and 1943, but they were not used until 1948. Three more windows followed in 1953. In the spirit of a Biblia pauperum , the six windows depict various biblical scenes from the Old and New Testaments facing windows have rather dark tones, in order to dampen the dazzling sunlight in the morning, the windows on the south choir wall are kept in light tones. Between 1968 and 1970 the artist Roland Guignard created eight further windows in the side aisle, which represent the Our Father as a cycle in the form of non-representational compositions.

Organ and belfry

Around 1700 the church had its first organ . In 1728 the city of Bern bought it for the French Church , but in 1755 it was no longer used there, which is why it was brought back to Aarau and installed the following year. The late baroque prospectus was designed by Johann Konrad Speissegger. The organ was on the rood screen until it was moved to the west gallery in 1891 as part of a comprehensive renovation and received a new organ from Friedrich Goll . This was replaced in 1962 by a new work by Orgelbau Kuhn , while the prospectus was retained. The organ has a total of four manuals , a pedal , 61  registers and 4685 pipes .

I Rückpositiv C – g 3
Dumped 8th'
Quintatön 8th'
Principal 4 ′
Reed flute 4 ′
Octav 2 ′
recorder 2 ′
Larigot 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
Sequialtera II
Mixture III-IV 1'
Zimbel IV 1 ⁄ 2 ′
Rankett 16 ′
Krummhorn 8th'
musette 4 ′
Tremulant
II Hauptwerk C – g 3
Praestant 16 ′
Principal 8th'
Reed flute 8th'
Octav 4 ′
Pointed flute 4 ′
Octav 2 ′
Mixture major IV 2 ′
Mixture minor IV 1'
Cornett V 8th'
bassoon 16 ′
prong 8th'
III Swell C – g 3
Reed flute 16 ′
Principal 8th'
Coupling flute 8th'
Salicional 8th'
Octav 4 ′
Hollow flute 4 ′
Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
Forest flute 2 ′
third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
Mixture IV-V 2 ′
Sharp III-IV 2 ⁄ 3 ′
Trumpet 8th'
oboe 8th'
Clairon 4 ′
Tremulant
IV breastwork C – g 3
Wooden dacked 8th'
Pointed 4 ′
Schwiegel 2 ′
Octav 1'
Terzian II 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
Cymbal III-IV 1 ⁄ 4 ′
shelf 8th'
Pedals C – f 1
Pedestal 32 ′
Principal bass 16 ′
Sub bass 16 ′
Principal 8th'
Pointed flute 8th'
Octav 4 ′
flute 4 ′
Night horn 2 ′
Rauschwerk V 4 ′
Mixture V 2 ′
trombone 16 ′
Sordun 16 ′
Trumpet 8th'
Dulcian 8th'
Clairon 4 ′
shawm 4 ′

In addition to this main organ, there is a smaller organ on the north wall of the choir from 1983, which replaced a predecessor from 1939. It also comes from Orgelbau Kuhn and has two manuals with 18 registers and 1098 pipes.

On the back wall of the rood screen, three grave slabs are embedded in the floor of the central nave; high-ranking figures from the late 15th century rest here. The pulpit , made in 1967, is made of wood and has carvings that are modeled on those in the Church of St. Maria and Michael in Churwalden . The font goes back to the original church furnishings from 1475.

In the large high church tower there is a stately loud bell in a celebratory wake-up motif in A flat major, which consists of seven bells. The tones are: As, c, Es, f, As, c, f. All bells were cast by the Rüetschi bell foundry located in the same town in two different years. The belfry is made of metal.

literature

  • Richard Buser: The city church of Aarau . Ed .: Society for Swiss Art History. Swiss art guide, volume 576 . Bern 1995, ISBN 3-85782-576-6 .
  • Barbara Strasser: Color space Stadtkirche Aarau Accompanying the stained glass . Aarau 2013.

Web links

Commons : Stadtkirche Aarau  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Felix Kuhn: The ford through the Aare and the Telli church . In: Ortsbürgergemeinde Aarau (Hrsg.): Aarauer Neujahrsblätter . tape 92 . here + now , Baden 2018, ISBN 978-3-03919-429-2 , p. 25-35 .
  2. ^ Richard Buser: The city church of Aarau. Pp. 6-7.
  3. ^ Richard Buser: The city church of Aarau. P. 7.
  4. ^ Richard Buser: The city church of Aarau. Pp. 7-8.
  5. ^ A b Richard Buser: The city church of Aarau. Pp. 9-12.
  6. ^ Richard Buser: The city church of Aarau. Pp. 9-12.
  7. ^ Richard Buser: The city church of Aarau. Pp. 16-17.
  8. ^ Richard Buser: The city church of Aarau. Pp. 20-23.
  9. ↑ More information about the organ
  10. ^ Richard Buser: The city church of Aarau. Pp. 24-28.
  11. ^ Richard Buser: The city church of Aarau. Pp. 28-31.


Coordinates: 47 ° 23 '33.6 "  N , 8 ° 2' 33.8"  E ; CH1903:  645609  /  249269