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.

City parish church St. Johann in Rapperswil

Sanctuary

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

Choir stalls and organ prospect

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.

I Swell C – g ³
Dumped	8th'
Viol	8th'
Vox coelestis	8th'
Principal	4 ′
Transverse flute	4 ′
Nasat	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
Night horn	2 ′
third	1 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
Mixture IV-V	2 ′
Bassoon Dulcian	16 ′
Schalmey	8th'
Tremulant

II Hauptwerk C – g ³
Bourdon	16 ′
Principal	8th'
Hollow flute	8th'
Octave	4 ′
Pointed flute	4 ′
Octave	2 ′
third	1 ³ ⁄ ₅  ′
Mixture IV-V	1 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
Trumpet	8th'

III Oberwerk C – g ³
Pommer	8th'
Fugara	4 ′
Reed flute	4 ′
Principal	2 ′
Larigot	1 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
Sharp II-III	1 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
Vox humana	8th'
Tremulant

Pedal C – f ¹
Principal	16 ′
Sub bass	16 ′
Fifth	10 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
Octave	8th'
Tube bare	8th'
Choral bass	4 ′
Back set IV	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
bassoon	32 ′
trombone	16 ′
Trumpet	8th'
prong	4 ′

Coupling : I / II, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P

Bells

Mary's bell from 1537, above that brother's claw bell from 1960

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 Herrenberg Primary School
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
Statue of Our Lady at the left side altar
Angel console with Rapperswil coat of arms (around 1440/50), formerly tower sacristy, in the Rapperswil City Museum