City Church Biel

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City Church Biel
Tower of the Biel City Church

The town church Biel is a sacred building of the Reformed community in Biel / Bienne . It stands on Kirchgässli in the old town and is a cultural asset of national importance .

history

The town church was first mentioned in 1228. The church was originally consecrated to Saint Benedict of Nursia and belonged to the diocese of Lausanne until the Reformation in 1528 .

The current church was built between 1451 and 1470 in the late Gothic style by the master craftsman Wenzlin. Remains of the walls of the Romanesque and Gothic predecessor buildings, some of which were demolished or walled up during the construction of the church, have been preserved to this day . The base of the church tower comes from the previous church and was raised in 1480 so that the bells could still be heard over the new roof of the nave in the city. Shortly before completion, the tower and the bells collapsed, but they were not destroyed. In 1490 the tower was restored. The spire with its corner turrets was built between 1549 and 1551.

The nave consists of main and side aisles and is 36 meters long with the choir . The main nave is 7.5 meters wide and 14 meters high. The choir with its high pointed arched windows was initially separated from the nave by a rood screen . The rood screen was removed in 1781; The two arched doors to the rood screen are still there today.

Furnishing

painting

The wall paintings in the interior of the church are of particular importance, especially the depiction of St. Benedict at the entrance of the north portal, the fresco of the handkerchief of St. Veronica in a niche in the north aisle, a depiction of the Last Judgment (Christ on the rainbow) in the nave and one Depiction of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian in the south aisle.

Also worth mentioning are:

  • Holy water spout, priest's seat and baptismal font (1492) in the choir
  • Stained glass in the center window of the choir (1457), donated by the city of Biel, depicting the Passion of Christ and scenes from the life of St. Benedict.

Organs

Swallow's Nest Organ

On the north wall of the nave is a swallow's nest organ , which was built in 1994 by Metzler Orgelbau (Dietikon). At the same place there was already a swallow's nest organ at the beginning of the 16th century, built by Hans Tugi in 1517, which was destroyed as early as 1527 during the turmoil of the Reformation. Today's instrument has nine registers on Rückpositiv (FGAB – g 2 a 2 : Gedackt 8 ′, Principal 4 ′) and manuals (CDEFGAB – g 2 a 2 : Praestant 8 ′, Coppel 8 ′, Octave 4 ′, Waldflöte 2 ′, Mixture IV, Sesquialtera II, shelf 8 ′). The pedal (CDEFGAB – c 1 ) is attached to the manual. The instrument is equipped with a tremulant and the effect registers bird song, cymbal bell and a calcant bell. It is tuned in the middle tone and is especially designed for the performance of organ music from the late Gothic, Renaissance and early Baroque periods . The painted double doors were completed in 1995.

Main organ

On the stone west gallery was a baroque organ , which was built in 1783 by Jacques Besançon. The instrument survived the earthquake of 1855 and was completely renovated in 1943. This was equivalent to a new building; At that time the organ had 55 registers, which were divided into three manuals and pedal. After an expansion in 1956, the plant was replaced in 2011.

Today's main organ was completed by the organ building company Metzler (Dietikon) in 2011. A special feature is the 4th manual, a wind dynamic work. The organ has a total of 51 stops, including one extended stop and one transmission, on four manual works and a pedal.

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
1. Praestant 16 ′
2. Octave 8th'
3. viola 8th'
4th Flûte harmonique 8th'
5. Hollow flute 8th'
6th Octave 4 ′
7th Pointed flute 4 ′
8th. Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
9. Super octave 2 ′
10. Cornet V 8th'
11. Mixture IV 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
12. bassoon 16 ′
13. Trumpet 8th'
II Positive C-g 3
14th Quintad 8th'
15th Reed flute 8th'
16. Principal 4 ′
17th Gemshorn 4 ′
18th Smalled up 4 ′
19th Sesquialter II 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
20th Octave 2 ′
21st Larigot 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′
22nd Sharp IV 1'
23. Dulcian 8th'
Tremulant
III Swell C – g 3
24. Dumped 16 ′
25th Principal 8th'
26th Viol 8th'
27. Voix céleste 8th'
28. Wooden flute 8th'
29 Principal 4 ′
30th Transverse flute 4 ′
31. Nasard 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
32. Forest flute 2 ′
33. third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
34. Sifflet 1'
35. Trompette harmonique 8th'
36. oboe 8th'
37. Clairon 4 ′
Tremulant
IV Wind dynamic work F – f 2
38. Flauto 8th'
39. Octave 4 ′
40. Quintad 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′
41. Third octave 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′
42. Wind harp 4 ′

Pedals C – f 1
43. Subbass (from No. 45) 32 ′
44. Wooden principal 16 ′
45. Sub bass 16 ′
46. Octavbass 8th'
47. Viola (= No. 3) 8th'
48. Choral bass 4 ′
49. Rauschpfeife IV 2 ′
50. trombone 16 ′
51. Trumpet 8th'
  • Coupling: II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P

Choir organ

In 2003, Peter Kraul, in collaboration with the Bern University of the Arts, created an experimental choir organ with five stops (Principal 8 ′, Gedackt 8 ′, Flute 4 ′, Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′, Third 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′, Wind harp).

Bells

In the belfry of the tower today hang five bells. They were cast by the H. Rüetschi foundry in Aarau , three in 1882, one in 1947 and the last in 1955. They have the beats h 0 - cis 1 - ds 1 - fis 1 - gis 1 .

literature

  • Eduard Lanz and Hans Berchtold: 500 years Biel city church. Local history commission, Biel 1963.
  • The choir windows of the Biel City Church. Catalog for the exhibition from August 15 to September 12, 1971. Printed by: Buchdruckerei Gassmann, Biel.
  • Ingrid Ehrensperger-Katz: Reformed city church Biel. (Swiss. Art Guide, Series 30, No. 291). Society for Switzerland. Art history GSK. Bern 1981, ISBN 3-85782-291-0 .
  • Ingrid Ehrensperger-Katz and Margrit Wick-Werder: Biel Bienne, old town and new quarters without the incorporated villages of Bözingen, Madretsch, Mett and Vingelz. (Swiss Art Guide, Series 71, No. 705/706). Society for Switzerland. Art history GSK. Bern 2002, ISBN 3-85782-705-X .

See also

Web links

Commons : Reformierte Stadtkirche, Biel / Bienne  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the overview on altstadt-biel.ch
  2. ↑ Information on the high-wall organ ( memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 7 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ref-biel.ch
  3. ↑ See the overview ( Memento of the original from October 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on altstadt-biel.ch @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.altstadt-biel.ch
  4. ↑ Information on the organ ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 50 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ref-biel.ch
  5. ^ Choir organ of the Biel City Church , seen October 25, 2013.
  6. ↑ To the bells on youtube.com


Coordinates: 47 ° 8 '28.9 "  N , 7 ° 14' 47.5"  E ; CH1903:  five hundred and eighty-five thousand four hundred and twenty-eight  /  221173