Parish Church of St. Johann (Rapperswil)
The parish church of St. Johann is a Roman Catholic church in the district of Rapperswil , municipality of Rapperswil-Jona , in the Swiss canton of St. Gallen . After a devastating fire and extensive rebuilding, St. Johann was re-consecrated on October 6, 1885. Its architectural style is a mixture of stylistic elements from seven centuries.
location
The church stands on the rising eastern flank of the castle hill, on Herrenberg in the northern part of the old town of Rapperswil , 20 meters east of the castle . Northwest of the parish church is the Liebfrauenkapelle , built in 1489, with the ossuary from 1253, when Rapperswil became an independent parish and was given a cemetery . On the opposite side of Herrenberg-Gasse are the former benefice houses of the parish Rapperswil-Jona.
history
The first church in the shadow of the castle was built by order of the Count of Rapperswil at the same time as the town and castle of Rapperswil around 1229. For the Rapperswil Count's House, the construction of the city church was just one of a number of well-known ecclesiastical and monastic foundations and foundations: Ritterhaus Bubikon (1192), Wettingen Monastery (1227), Oberbollingen Monastery (around 1250), 1259 the Cistercian nuns - Mariazell-Wurmsbach Monastery and the Dominican convent Weesen. In 1227 and 1290, the Rapperswil residents gave or sold their goods to the Wettingen monastery in Uri , including Göschenen . This not entirely altruistic, but at the time customary charity ensured the members of the Rapperswil family their salvation and earthly goods and income. Until 1253, St. Johann was legally under the parish of Busskirch and thus the Pfäfers monastery , since then Rapperswil has been an independent parish.
Architecture and equipment
From the archaeological excavations on the occasion of the renovation work of 1971/72, revealing insights into the original building fabric could be gained: The Romanesque hall church with straight choir wall, to which parts of the cemetery were attached, was extended and raised in 1383 towards the castle by eight meters. The Romanesque north tower from the founding of the parish (1253) was joined after 1441 by the somewhat larger and solidly built Gothic south tower. In 1493/97, collecting campaigns in Habsburg cities and the estate of Countess Gutta von Reinach-Wertheim made it possible to convert it into a three-sided Gothic choir with ribbed vaults and tracery windows. The resulting after the Reformation to 1531 Renaissance - winged altars in the side chapels were spared from the devastating Kirchenbrand on 30 January 1882 as it in the Baroque period were transferred to other chapels. The tower sacristy in the south tower, protected by thick walls, remained intact, along with the precious church treasures : masterpieces and the like. a. the Rapperswil goldsmiths Breny, Dietrich, Dumeisen, Rüssi and Ysenschlegel, who make him the richest in the Linth area.
Advised by the art historian Johann Rudolf Rahn , the architect Xaver Müller rebuilt the church to a large extent, based on the destroyed building. The preserved towers were raised by 1.2 meters. New were a choir with a neo-Gothic star vault, the extension of the nave by a few meters and a double hilted wooden ceiling. The neo-Gothic altars and the pulpit were created by the Marggraf studio in Munich. The new consecration took place on October 6, 1885. The large candlestick was delivered in 1894 by the Benziger & Co. company from Einsiedeln. Renovations followed in 1959/60 - the outer facade and new bells - as well as in 1971/73 and 1981.
organ
The organ was built in 1975 by the organ builder Mathis (Näfels). The instrument has 38 registers on three manuals and a pedal . The game contractures and Registertrakturen are mechanical.
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- Coupling : I / II, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
Bells
In the big tower hangs a sonically outstanding chime from seven bells. The historic third bell was supplemented by six bells by Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling ( Heidelberg ) in 1960 . The bells with a total weight of around 16,000 kilograms hang in a massive steel bell cage on straight steel yokes . On Saturdays at 3:00 p.m. the Sunday is rung in for around five minutes with all the bells.
No. |
Surname |
Nominal |
Casting year |
Giesser, casting location |
Weight (kg) |
1 | Trinity | as 0 | 1960 | Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling, Heidelberg | 6,040 |
2 | Holy Cross | b 0 | 1960 | Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling, Heidelberg | 3,900 |
3 | Maria | of the 1st | 1537 | Hans I. Füssli , Zurich |
≈2,100 |
4th | John | it 1 | 1960 | Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling, Heidelberg | 1,562 |
5 | Brother Klaus | f 1 | 1960 | Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling, Heidelberg | 1,081 |
6th | Guardian Angel | as 1 | 1960 | Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling, Heidelberg | 740 |
7th | Joseph | b 1 | 1960 | Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling, Heidelberg | 513 |
Parish
The parish of St.Johann was founded in 1253 by Count Rudolf III. founded and today belongs to the Catholic parish Rapperswil-Jona. St. Johann counts 3,900 believers and covers the area of the independent political municipality of Rapperswil until December 31, 2006 . John the Baptist has been the patron saint of the parish since 1253 .
Founded in 1737 by some “ Gentlemen Musicians ”, the “Brotherhood of St. Caecilia und Katharina »(Caecilia Music Society) still provides high quality church music in the parish church of St. Johann. Her repertoire also includes compositions by the church musician and composer Carl Greith (* 1828; † 1887), cathedral music director in Munich, who was born in Rapperswil . More than 1,000 compositions are known by him and his father Franz Josef Greith (* 1799; † 1869) - composer and music teacher who composed the melody of the Rütli song (" Greetings from far away, you quiet terrain by the lake").
Picture gallery
View from the city cemetery to the Liebfrauenkapelle and Stadtpfarrkirche, on the left the Herrenberg schoolhouse
The mother church of St. Martin Busskirch in Jona
Franz Josef Greith , monument at the Capuchin Monastery
Angel console with Rapperswil coat of arms (around 1440/50), formerly tower sacristy, in the Rapperswil City Museum
See also
literature
- Alfons Curti: The Rapperswil parish church . Verlag Oberholzer, Uznach 1937.
Individual evidence
- ^ Website Rapperswil-Jona: Churches and monasteries
- ^ Rapperswil-Jona culture building set: 36 museums without a roof
- ↑ More information about the organ ( Memento from June 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Bells ringing in the parish church of St. Johann on YouTube
- ↑ Parish Rapperswil-Jona: Parish St. Johann
- ^ Regula Puskás: Greith, Franz Joseph. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 13 '38.8 " N , 8 ° 48' 59.1" E ; CH1903: 704 340 / 231638