Stephanskapelle (Chur)

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The Stephanskapelle (also Stephanuskapelle or St. Stephan ) is the oldest known Christian sacral building in the Grisons capital Chur after the previous buildings of the today's cathedral . Today it is located under the playground of the Bündner canton school .

History and art history

A nominally unknown bishop of Chur , a predecessor of Asinio , left the building under the patronage of the first Christian martyr Stephen as vaulted grave chamber ( hypogeum ) probably built shortly before the middle of the 5th century.. Its location on Mittenberg, outside of the inhabited area and on the edge of a late antique burial ground, indicates its purpose as a cemetery building . The sacred building served as a burial place and probably also as a liturgical room, although a brick altar could not be proven. The barrel-vaulted rectangular room, which was partially built into the slope , had an apsidiole and a reliquary tunnel ; under the floor, which was covered with stone slabs, there were symmetrically laid out burial chambers. The room was painted ornamentally and figuratively ( apostles , paradise scenes). Sparse but significant remains of it have survived. A few decades after the construction of this first building, the grave building was rebuilt and rebuilt and thus significantly expanded and enlarged. The result was a hall with a non-retracted apse measuring around 17 × 7.2 meters. A floor mosaic made of pebbles has been preserved in the apse; further mosaics and fresco fragments could be exposed and restored. The burial chapel below remained accessible from the west.

In the 6th and 7th centuries, St. Stephan was the most important Christian sacred building in Chur, but lost its importance very early on compared to the nearby Luzius Church . The inscriptions of the Viktoriden and probably also the bones of the dignitaries buried in St. Stephan came to St. Luzi. The burial ends before 800. Around 1150 St. Stephan is still mentioned as a church in the Chur Book of the Dead. In the course of the Reformation it was probably abandoned as a church and finally, around 1622, in the course of the Bündner turmoil, it was largely razed by Habsburg troops ( usque ad medium ). It is still listed as a ruin on the Knillenburger Prospect, a perspective view of the city of Chur from around 1640. Later the church was completely built over and the formerly important burial and church square fell into oblivion.

Rediscovery

Location of the Stefanskapelle on Mittenberg.
The excavation area of ​​the St. Stephen's Chapel is located under the concrete cover of the break hall of the Bündner Kantonsschule


When the Bündner Kantonsschule was expanded in 1850, semicircular walls and mosaic fragments were found. The German art historian Friedrich von Quast happened to be in Chur. He was able to identify the relics as the former St. Stephen's Chapel believed to be lost.

Todays use

For cultural asset of national importance explains Stephan chapel was by the Archaeological Service Grisons restored so that they used as a museum and the wider public can be made available. It can be viewed in group tours.

literature

  • Hans Batz: The churches and chapels of the canton of Graubünden. Vol. IV Casanova Druck und Verlag AG ( undated ) ISBN 3-85637-290-3 .
  • Michael Durst (Ed.): The Beginnings of the Church in the Diocese of Chur (451-2001). In: Series of publications by the theological University of Chur. Vol. 1, 2002. Pages 13–58.
  • Peter de Jong: A problem case has turned into a little pearl , in: Churermagazin 11/2010, p. 4f.
  • Hans Rudolf Sennhauser (Ed.): Early churches in the eastern Alpine region. From late antiquity to the Ottonian period. Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Treatises - New Series, Issue 123. Publishing House of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich 2003. ISBN 3-7696-0118-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Durst (Ed.) (2002) p. 40
  2. ↑ Durst (Ed.) (2002) p. 36
  3. ↑ Sennhauser (Ed.) (2003) pp. 77-78
  4. ↑ Durst (Ed.) (2002) p. 38
  5. ↑ Batz (undated), Vol. IV, p. 19
  6. ↑ Sennhauser (Ed.) (2003) p. 77
  7. ↑ Guided tours of St. Stephan ( Memento of the original from October 26, 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.churtourismus.ch

Web links

Coordinates: 46 ° 50 '48.2 "  N , 9 ° 32' 18.8"  E ; CH1903:  seven hundred and sixty thousand one hundred and fifty-one  /  190542