Stadtkirche Glarus

The town church of Glarus is the main Protestant church of the village in the canton of Glarus Glarus, Switzerland.

It was built in the years 1863-1866 according to the plans of Ferdinand Stadler in the Romanesque Revival style as a replacement for the destroyed in a fire in May 1861 predecessor church and served around a hundred years as a simultaneous church at the same time the Reformed and the Roman Catholic denomination, to the Catholics in 1964 Fridolin with the church got its own parish church.

Planning and construction

Ferdinand Stadler was the only one the contract to design the plans for a church. He laid in February 1862 the Council of Churches before, with an estimate of 380,000 - 400'000 CHF Since this amount exceeds the Glarus appeared too high, they commissioned Stadler's main competitors in terms of church Joseph Caspar Jeuch ( 1811-95 ) with a counter-proposal should cost which not more than 300,000 Fr. Jeuch designed under this cost pressure a neo-Gothic building whose elongated columns and ribbing, cast iron should exist.

This economy version was deemed unworthy, especially because cast iron was then considered as a construction material for industrial buildings. Jeuch received no second chance, Stadler was the only complete his plans. He developed a variant with central tower and a double tower. Estimate: approximately 600,000 CHF

In a report to Professor Wilhelm Lübke from ETH called for a twin tower and said, " that building - designed in this form - would redound to the community for centuries for ornament and joy."

Architect and contractor Bernhard Simon Stadler pointed after that the foundations for the towers to be built solid and thereby incur additional costs. The council awarded the construction work at Simon as general contractor for a sum of 560,000 CHF without clock, bells, organ and altars, which he barely passed. Stadler received by the municipality 20,000 francs for the making of plans and monitoring of construction. The entire church building costs amounted to 724'542, 51 Fr

The building went without major incidents vonstatten, in the spring of 1866, the work was completed.

Bells

The town church has a peal of five bells. They were 1865/66 cast of Jacob Keller in Zurich and the percussion sounds heard in g0, h0, d1, g1 and h1.

Renovation in 1927/28

The renovation of 1927/28 was the work of Karl Moser. Moser, of the construction of the first concrete church ( St. Anthony's ) in Switzerland has created a name for himself, wanted to adapt the Church to the zeitgeist and make big changes. The main façade with rose window and the gable should be replaced by a smooth wall with a mosaic of St. Fridolin. Historicism was among contemporary architects - considerably discredited - especially the representatives of the Bauhaus style.

The Glarus art historian Hans Jenny sat farsighted for the preservation of the church in the original style one, he argued, in another 60 years of historicism will be rediscovered and then regretted the conversion. Jenny's words were heard, a large majority opposed the conversion of the Eastern Front. However, the renovation including installation of the large organ gallery was decided.

The biggest change was the color scheme inside: The church was a large area painted in rich colors. The measures provided for pictorial representations on the walls of the side aisles and the clerestory were not realized. With little enthusiasm met the requirement of the fire, install fire safety reasons a riser in one of the two towers.

On April 7, 1940, the church was damaged heavily by fire. Daniel Aebli and Albert Affentranger they built without major changes to again. The fire protection measures has now been paid more attention: The riser was installed and the previously open roof space is divided into fire compartments.

The biggest change, in turn, learned the inside. The color scheme was in accordance with the New Objectivity, decorated in light shades of gray, wooden parts were left in a natural color.

More Renovations

Another gentle renovation took place in 1964, when the Catholics got their own church.

In the great interior and exterior renovation in two stages from August 1995 to April 1999, the church was (with few exceptions) returned to its first stage of construction. The painting of the interior was modeled after the original, as is the floor covering of artificial stone. The windows in the nave were given a triple glazing, the windows in the rosettes a protective glazing. The electorate blessed for it from a loan in the amount of 9.5 million francs.

For this last renovation the Europa Nostra medal the town church Glarus received in 2001.

Related buildings

The Altlerchenfelder parish church, St. Louis (Munich) and the large cathedral in Zurich are related buildings.