This place is littered with majestic churches and their history and architecture is all tied up in the reformation (battle between the Catholics and Protestants for the hearts and souls of men and the architecture of their churches). Here are a few of those we looked at:
Munster of Bern
This is the Münster (catheral) of Bern. [I don't think there is a connection, but the “Munsters” was a 60’s sitcom of a normal family of monsters lead by a Frankenstein looking character named Herman, sort of a “Addams Family” knock-off. This may have left me, perhaps subliminally, a little conflicted about my impression of this church.]
The church is now undergoing some restoration and was closed, and scaffolding lined the steeple (I downloaded the picture below from Flickr). They started building it 1421, but it wasn't finished (including its 330 foot tower), until 1893 (and we think of the Salt Lake Temple taking a long time – 40 years, but think of all the generations of workers who would have worked on this church never to see it completed).
What originally started as Catholic church (with intricate iconic images) ended up a Protestant church at which time the once beautiful statutes and images (and now offensive papist idolatry) were taken out and thrown away. However, the reformists at least had the good sense not to knock off the detailed images carved (yes actually carved into rock) on the front portal depicting the Last Judgment (and one of the most complete late Gothic sculpture collections in Europe).
The church is now undergoing some restoration and was closed, and scaffolding lined the steeple (I downloaded the picture below from Flickr). They started building it 1421, but it wasn't finished (including its 330 foot tower), until 1893 (and we think of the Salt Lake Temple taking a long time – 40 years, but think of all the generations of workers who would have worked on this church never to see it completed).
What originally started as Catholic church (with intricate iconic images) ended up a Protestant church at which time the once beautiful statutes and images (and now offensive papist idolatry) were taken out and thrown away. However, the reformists at least had the good sense not to knock off the detailed images carved (yes actually carved into rock) on the front portal depicting the Last Judgment (and one of the most complete late Gothic sculpture collections in Europe).
Mosesbrunnen ("Moses fountain") statue outside the Münster
Nydeggkirche (Bern)
This church (Swiss Reformed Church) is located just down the street from our hotel in Bern. What is noteworthy in comparison to the other churches (especially the Caltholic churches of the baroque era) is its simplicity – there isn’t even a cross. This “reformist” church dates from the 14th century, when the church was built on the site of the original castle of Bern (dating from 1191). The carved pulpit (located on the left as was the tradition) dates from the 16th century. The raised and covered pulpits seems to be the tradition of the protestant reformists church (also below is the Heiliggeistkirche with a more elaborate pulpit).
While walking through the Nydeggkirche we picked up a flyer for a concert that evening. So we went. It was a vocal ensemble “Rossini Vokalensemble” (18 member vocal ensemble) singing “a cappella” some works of Ludwig Senft (1484-1543) (Zurich), Gioachino Rossini (as in the William Tell overture) (1792-1868) and Willy Burkard (1900-1955 from Bern).
There was also a clarinetist who played some solos and also some improvised “bridges” between the ensemble’s numbers (which was actually very effective since the clarinet introduction could set the pitch for the a cappella ensemble). [Janell: About half was on the bass clarinet and you would have enjoyed it. He was really good.] It was all in German (except for a few numbers in Italian), but that didn’t matter much with music. The ensemble was very good and the acoustics in the building were excellent. It was free except for the minister holding the “collection” basket at the exit.
There was also a clarinetist who played some solos and also some improvised “bridges” between the ensemble’s numbers (which was actually very effective since the clarinet introduction could set the pitch for the a cappella ensemble). [Janell: About half was on the bass clarinet and you would have enjoyed it. He was really good.] It was all in German (except for a few numbers in Italian), but that didn’t matter much with music. The ensemble was very good and the acoustics in the building were excellent. It was free except for the minister holding the “collection” basket at the exit.
Heiliggeistkirche
Heiliggeistkirche (the Church of the Holy Ghost) in Bern, also Swiss Reformed Church, but larger and more elaborate than the Nydeggkirche (and with the larger pulpit in the center) but still "plain" compared the Catholic baroque churches. This church is right in the middle of the busy plaza in front of the new modern train station (and it is probably some sort of miracle it has survived all the construction around it.)
Fussen
Asam church - Munich
This church is literally squeezed between the adjoining buildings. It was built in in 1733 by two brothers and used as much to promote their business of building churches, as a place of worship. While they considered it their own "private" church, due to complaints by local citizens they were forced to make the church accessible to the public. Clearly the architect was not aiming for understatement (and in the largely Catholic Bavaria and lacked the "reformist" sentiments of Protestant Bern). While we were there an organist was playing some baroque music (that was pretty good and the acoustics are remarkable in these old stone churches).
This is the St Michaels church in Munich, which is undergoing a restoration. Look closely, what you see is carefully printed canvas providing a cover for the scaffolding.
This is a picture of a stained glass window in the Frauenkirche or Munich Cathedral. These windows are really beautiful, but so tall it is hard to get a full picture (this was taken a staircase down to a lower level)
