Temple Saint-Etienne

View of St. Stephen's Church around 1900

Front view of the church on the Place de la Réunion

The bell tower dominates the cityscape of Mulhouse

The Protestant St. Stephen's Church ( Temple Saint-Étienne ) is the main Reformed church in the city of Mulhouse in Alsace . Due to its central location on Mülhausen's main square, Place de la Réunion, and its 97 meter high bell tower (the highest church tower in the Haut-Rhin department ), it is sometimes referred to as the “Cathedral of Mulhouse” ( Cathédrale de Mulhouse ). The church is the work of the city architect Jean-Baptiste Schacre , to whom Mulhouse also owes the large Catholic St. Stephen's Church ( Église Saint-Étienne ).

history

Restoration work on the bell tower, January 2010

The former parish church of St. Stephen rose on the site of the current building until 1858 . The original late Romanesque building from the 12th century was extended in the Gothic style at the beginning of the 14th century . A much higher choir was attached to the nave. In 1510 the Romanesque bell tower was redesigned in the Renaissance style. In 1523 the church became Protestant . In 1707 the bell tower was crowned with an onion dome. In 1857, the Mülhausen city council decided to replace the church, which was now considered to be in disrepair, with a new building. The city architect Schacre, who had already built the city's main synagogue and the Catholic St. Stephen's Church, designed a church in the neo-Gothic style over a simple, rectangular floor plan without a transept and choir. In contrast to the elongated Catholic Church, it is a squat but very wide building. The bell tower, which is visible from afar, stands behind the building , in contrast to its model on the Freiburg Minster . Today's church was built between 1859 and 1866. Since February 2009 it has been completely restored both inside and out. The construction work began with the complete scaffolding of the bell tower.

Furnishing

A considerable part of the equipment of the previous building found its way into the St. Stephen's Church by Jean-Baptiste Schacre. The most important art treasures of the city of Mulhouse are the large stained glass windows from the years 1320 to 1350, famous for their lively design and richness of color. They were originally located in the choir and were installed in the clapboard windows in 1905 . The baroque choir stalls made of dark oak come from 1637 . The stone tomb of Baron Friedrich Ludwig Waldner von Freundstein (1735), an important work of the local late baroque, was placed in the meeting room of the new church.

The baroque pulpit from 1647 is now in the Protestant church of Illzach .

organ

Only the case remains of the Silbermann organ by Johann Andreas Silbermann (1765) ; it has been in the town's Protestant St. John's Church (Temple Saint-Jean) since the old church was torn down. Today's organ comes from the workshop of Eberhard Friedrich Walcker , but has been changed several times since it was installed in 1866, in particular in 1953 by the organ manufacturer Schwenkedel . Today the instrument has 70 registers on four manuals and a pedal .

I Grand Orgue C-g 3 Montre 16 ′ (W) Bourdon 16 ′ Montre 8th' (W) Flûte creuse 8th' (W) Bourdon 8th' (W) Salicional 8th' (W) Prestant 4 ′ (W) Flûte à cheminée 4 ′ (W) Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ (W) Duplicate 2 ′ (W) Flute 2 ′ Fittings VI Cymbals III Cornet V (W) Trumpets 8th' Clairon 4 ′

II positive C-g 3 Montre ancienne 8th' Bourdon 8th' (W) Prestant 4 ′ (W) Flûte conique 4 ′ (W) Nasard 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Quarte de nasard 2 ′ (W) Tierce 1 3 ⁄ 5  ′ Cymbals III Cromorne 8th'

III echo C-g 3 Quintaton 16 ′ Principal italy 8th' (W) Cor de nuit 8th' (W) Flute solo 8th' Principal 4 ′ Flûte à cheminée 4 ′ (W) Principal 2 ′ Larigot 1 1 ⁄ 3  ′ Piccolo 1' Plein-Jeu IV Ranquette 16 ′ musette 8th' Clairon 4 ′

IV Récit expressif C – g 3 Bourdon 16 ′ (W) diapason 8th' (W) Flûte harmonique 8th' (W) Viol 8th' (W) Bourdon 8th' (W) Voix céleste 8th' Fugara 4 ′ (W) Flûte harmonique 4 ′ (W) Fifth 2 2 ⁄ 3  ′ Duplicate 2 ′ Plein-Jeu V Cymbals III Bombard 16 ′ Trumpet harm. 8th' Clairon 4 ′ Basson / Hautbois 8th' Voix humaine 8th' Tremolo

Pedale C – g 1 Bourdon acoustique 32 ′ (W) Principal 16 ′ (W) Soubasse 16 ′ (W) Bourdon (Recit) 16 ′ Principal 8th' Flute 8th' (W) Bourdon 8th' (W) Basse chorale 4 ′ (W) Flute 4 ′ Principal 2 ′ Cornet III Fittings V. Bombard 16 ′ (W) Trumpets 8th' Clairon 4 ′

• Coupling : I / I, II / I, III / I, IV / I, III / II, IV / II, IV / III, IV / IV (as sub and super octave coupling), I / P, II / P, III / P, IV / P
• annotation

(W) = Register in whole or in part from 1866 (Walcker)

Bells

The main tower houses the largest bell of a Protestant church in France. The five bells were cast by Jakob Keller in Zurich -Unterstrass in 1867 and sound in the following tones: G ° H ° d 'g' h '.

literature

• Scheurer, Marie-Philippe; Lehni, Roger; Menninger, Claude: Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin - Images du Patrimoine , Le Verger, Illkirch-Graffenstaden , 1990, ISBN 2-908367-18-1

Individual evidence

1. ^ Temple Saint-Étienne, Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin) , accessed October 7, 2015.
2. ↑ Information on the Walcker organ ( Memento of the original from December 3, 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. (French) 

Web links

Commons : Temple Saint-Étienne  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Parish website
• History of the Church with contemporary views ( Memento from April 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
• Exterior and interior views
• The choir organ

Coordinates: 47 ° 44 ′ 50 ″  N , 7 ° 20 ′ 20 ″  E