Christian Catholic Collegiate Church of St. Martin: History and Architecture
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Switzerland
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Habsburg, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page21 sections
History
The Christian Catholic Collegiate Church of St. Martin is a historic church in Rheinfelden, Switzerland, whose present Gothic building developed during the second half of the fourteenth century and was extensively reshaped in the 1770s. Its origins reach back to the eleventh century, while its institutional history reflects the growth of Rheinfelden from a town into an imperial city and later into a center of the Christian Catholic movement.
Parish Origins and the Collegiate Foundation
The area first belonged to the parish of Magden, whose church was dedicated to St. Martin of Tours, a fourth-century bishop whose cult spread widely through western Europe. After Rheinfelden was founded as a town in the twelfth century, a separate parish with the same patron saint was established within the town. The parish was first mentioned in December 1146 in connection with two visits by Bernard of Clairvaux. Its jurisdiction initially covered the area inside the town walls, but its rights to collect tithes later expanded at Magden’s expense.
A document of 1212 names Dean Heinricus de Rinfelden, showing that a clerical community was already active at the church. Two clerics later petitioned Pope Gregory IX to create a collegiate foundation, probably to strengthen Rheinfelden’s position after the town became an imperial city in 1218. With the approval of Bishop Heinrich von Thun, the foundation was established on 31 October 1228.
A collegiate foundation was a community of secular clergy, called canons, organized to maintain worship and administer endowed property. The foundation received tax exemption and stood outside the town’s legal jurisdiction, as did the local Johanniter commandery, an administrative house of the Order of St. John. It took over the parish church, which thereby became a collegiate church, and assumed responsibility for pastoral care. The canons elected their own members, subject to confirmation by the dean of Basel Cathedral. After the foundation’s establishment, it had 13 prebends, or income-bearing canonries, two of them assigned to the provost. Most prebendaries came from the regional nobility, whose donations helped build the institution’s wealth.
Property, Education, and Reform
The foundation held property on both sides of the Rhine. Its holdings extended through the Fricktal as far as Laufenburg and Densbüren, into the Ergolz valley between Pratteln and Wisen, and to properties in Basel. On the right bank of the Rhine, it held land between Riehen and Säckingen and around Schopfheim and Bellingen. Eiken belonged to its patronage from the foundation’s creation, while Kilchberg and Herznach were added in 1400 and 1407. In 1653, Archduke Ferdinand III granted Wölflinswil as compensation for war damage suffered during the Thirty Years’ War, the prolonged European conflict that lasted from 1618 to 1648.
The canons sold surplus agricultural income at the Rheinfelden market and lent the proceeds at interest to local residents. The foundation also appointed the master of the town school. In 1460, Duke Sigismund ordered that one canonry should finance the newly founded University of Freiburg im Breisgau. When plague struck the university in 1492, 1501, and 1509, professors from its law faculty took refuge in Rheinfelden. In 1496, the town was considered as a possible location for the university itself. From 1468, the foundation held a place in the prelates’ chamber of the Breisgau estates.
Reformist ideas reached Rheinfelden from 1523 through Johann Eberlin von Günzburg and attracted interest among some of the canons. Austrian political dominance kept the town Catholic, although its clergy tolerated reformist innovations for several decades. Basel appointed a Reformed pastor at Kilchberg in 1529, but the income of that parish continued to belong to the collegiate foundation until 1807.
Rebuilding and Baroque Transformation
The church had several predecessors. An eleventh-century single-nave rectangular church was followed by a somewhat larger building around the middle of the twelfth century. Around 1190 to 1200, two annexes and a tower shaft about 10 metres high were added. Between 1220 and 1235, the Romanesque apsidal hall and its annexes were demolished and replaced by a basilica more than twice as large. A basilica is a church with a central nave rising above its side aisles.
The church underwent a unified Gothic rebuilding during the second and final thirds of the fourteenth century. Indulgences granted to churchgoers indicate that planning or construction may have begun in 1336. The choir was rebuilt first and completed by 1352, followed by the nave. A major fire in 1396 affected 30 houses and left the choir burned out, requiring its restoration. In 1478, the sacristy was replaced by a larger room on the east side, and the tower was raised by two further stories around the same period.
Alterations began again around the start of the seventeenth century under Bishop Jakob Christoph Blarer von Wartensee. The walls between the bays of the rood screen, a partition between the choir and nave, were removed, and the high altar was replaced between 1597 and 1606. An archive room for the collegiate records was built above the former sacristy in 1608, while a library was created above the new sacristy. The choir received a new spacious vault in 1669, and Jacob Carl Stauder painted the nave ceiling in 1732.
Between 1769 and 1772, structural work and extensive Baroque stucco unified the interior under the direction of Martin Fröwis, a stucco artist from Vorarlberg. The rood screen was removed, opening the full width of the choir toward the central nave. The deteriorated nave was repaired and fitted with new windows, side doors, and a gallery over the rearmost bay. A new vestibule was also built in front of the west façade.
Financial Decline and Christian Catholic Use
From the seventeenth century, the foundation faced growing financial problems because the Austrian rulers failed to repay loans extended to them. The Thirty Years’ War added to its difficulties. In 1803, the new canton of Aargau took over the foundation’s interest income, while the Imperial Deputation’s Final Recess transferred its possessions on the right bank of the Rhine, then in the Grand Duchy of Baden, out of its control. Aargau bought back the parishes of Eiken and Herznach for their congregations in 1868. The cantonal Grand Council dissolved the foundation by decree on 25 November 1870, ending its connection with Wölflinswil.
Rheinfelden rejected the First Vatican Council’s doctrine of papal infallibility, the teaching that the pope is preserved from error under defined conditions when formally declaring doctrine. This led to the formation of an Association of Liberal Catholics in 1872. On 2 November 1873, the parish joined the Christian Catholic movement by a vote with only one opposing vote. The movement consisted of Catholics who rejected papal infallibility and formed a distinct Catholic church tradition in Switzerland. On 18 September 1876, Joseph Hubert Reinkens consecrated Eduard Herzog in St. Martin’s as the first Christian Catholic bishop of Switzerland. A separate Roman Catholic parish was re-established nine years later.
Repairs followed in 1887 and 1888, and again from 1921 to 1924. The exterior was extensively restored under federal and cantonal heritage-conservation supervision from 1978 to 1980, followed by interior restoration from 1986 to 1992. The work sought to present the church as far as possible in its 1772 condition and included extensive archaeological investigation. Each year on 24 and 31 December, a procession of the Sebastian Brotherhood begins at the church and is followed by the singing of songs at fountains.
Remains
St. Martin is a three-aisled Gothic basilica with a predominantly Baroque interior. The choir and nave originated in the second half of the fourteenth century and are characteristic examples of early architecture associated with mendicant orders, religious communities traditionally supported by alms and communal resources. The church stands in the center of Rheinfelden’s old town. Kirchgasse runs along its south side from west to east, while Kirchplatz borders the east, north, and west sides. The square formerly served as the church cemetery.
Exterior and Medieval Fabric
Walls and Entrances
The white-plastered exterior has pointed-arch surrounds around the nave’s windows and doors. Larger portions of the medieval west wall survive beneath the later plaster. The choir windows have round arches with painted rocaille ornament in their upper sections. Painted gray bands emphasize the wall bases, building corners, and joints between the tower’s separate sections.
Tower
The tower stands on the north side of the church and incorporates several building phases. Its two lowest stories date from around 1200, its middle section reaches back to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and its two upper stories belong to the late fifteenth century. The earlier Gothic form reached an eaves height of 23 metres, while the later enlargement brought it to 29.9 metres. A crowning cap with four clock gables was added in 1629.
West Vestibule
The Baroque vestibule in front of the west façade is a square portal structure opened by three round-arched arcades. Stone sculptures stand on its gable. The vestibule was built during the interior and structural alterations of 1769 to 1772.
Early Church and Gothic Structure
Romanesque Basilica
The early basilica reused the apse of the earlier church, the unfinished tower, and the wall of the northern annex. Shortly after the basilica was completed, its apse was demolished and the choir was extended far to the east. The tower shaft was probably raised by two stories after the collegiate foundation, although this remains an inference rather than a documented event.
Gothic Nave and Sacristy
The Gothic rebuilding retained the width of the predecessor’s central nave but made it more than two-thirds higher and reduced its bays from six to five. A new roof and a square sacristy along the south wall were built at the same time. The sacristy was replaced in 1478 by the larger room on the east side of the choir. The former sacristy later became the Marian Chapel.
Baroque Interior
Choir and High Altar
From the entrance, the choir appears as a round-arched enclosure proportioned to the high altar opposite it. Stucco-covered cross-ribs on Corinthian pilasters divide it into three full bays, a half-bay beside the triumphal arch, and a polygonal bay with a three-part cap fan. Stucco cartouches cover the vault apexes, side surfaces, and lunettes, while rocaille, acanthus, and related ornament surround the ribs.
Six stucco coats of arms in the lunettes above the side walls commemorate canons of the collegiate foundation. Frescoes by Franz Fidel Bröchin in the ceiling medallions show the coat of arms of Bishop Heinrich von Thun, the seal image of the collegiate foundation, and the combined arms of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I Stephen.
Completed in 1606, the high altar combines German Gothic and Italian Renaissance elements. Its retable, the structure behind an altar, includes a predella or lower section, a three-axis main level with broken entablature and paired columns, and an upper section with herm pilasters. An image of St. Martin on horseback crowns the composition. The main frieze contains carved foliage, putti, leaping stags, and grotesque masks. The principal panel depicts the Adoration of the Shepherds, the upper panel shows the Coronation of Mary, and the side niches contain statues of the four Evangelists.
Two rows of ten seats with carved fronts and backs line the choir. A choir organ dating from 1770 stands in a cuboid case. A wrought-iron grille decorated with rocaille and plant motifs separates the choir from the nave. An archducal hat mounted above it represents the protection of the Austrian rulers.
Nave and Ceiling Frescoes
The central nave has no clearly expressed architectural subdivisions. Instead, stucco creates the impression of divisions through octagonally encased round pillars, curved elements, consoles, window and picture frames, rocaille ornament, and ceiling mirrors. Bröchin’s frescoes cover the ceilings of all three aisles. The central nave shows Mary as Queen of Heaven, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.
The south aisle depicts Mary as the Serpent Crusher with Adam and Eve before the Tree of Knowledge, the Birth of Mary, and the Entry of Mary into the Temple. The north aisle shows the Annunciation, the Visitation, and Mary’s admission into temple service. Pear-shaped picture fields on the high walls depict the Evangelists on the north side and the Latin Church Fathers, influential early Christian theologians who shaped western doctrine, on the south.
Nave Altars and Pulpit
Seven altars stand in the nave, with three in the central space and two in each side aisle. Against the choir grille is the Cross Altar, a stucco-marble structure with no retable. It carries a crucifix and a group representing the Crucifixion. The completely gilded work is probably by Johann Isaak Freitag. The central-nave side altars are also made of stucco marble and contain images of the Three Magi and Saint Anne.
The south aisle contains altars dedicated to Saints Fridolin and Francis Xavier. In the north aisle are the Rosary Altar and the altar of the Sebastian Brotherhood. Martin Fröwis made the stucco-marble pulpit. Its basket is undecorated, while its sounding board carries symbols of the Evangelists and a trumpet-blowing angel.
Chapels, Organ, and Treasury
West Gallery and Organ
A gallery spans all three aisles at the west end. It holds an organ installed in 1991, while the earliest evidence for an organ at St. Martin dates from 1519.
Baptismal and Marian Chapels
A round arch leads from the south aisle into a small baptismal chapel whose dimensions correspond to the southern bay of the former rood screen. A narrow spiral staircase in its southwest corner provides access to the archive and library. A black-and-white marble baptismal font stands against the north wall.
Another round arch connects the baptismal chapel with the Marian Chapel. This room has a cross vault and an altar on its east wall whose components belong to five different phases of creation.
Sacristy
The sacristy is reached from the choir and houses the church treasury. Its present position reflects the rebuilding of 1478, when the earlier sacristy was replaced by a larger room on the east side of the choir.
