Saint Martin’s Church: A Romanesque Painted-Ceiling Church in Switzerland
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Switzerland
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page15 sections
History
Saint Martin’s Church is a medieval church in Switzerland, in the village of Zillis, whose present nave and tower were built in the late eleventh or early twelfth century in the Romanesque period. Its unusually complete High Romanesque painted wooden ceiling makes it an important surviving monument of medieval art. The church now belongs to the Zillis/Schamserberg parish of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Grisons.
Roman and Early Christian Origins
A settlement stood at Zillis during the late Roman Empire. Excavations and coins found around the church indicate occupation between approximately the second and fourth centuries. The first church probably arose in the fifth or sixth century. Around 800, a second building, a hall church with three apses, was constructed. By approximately 830 it was listed as an ecclesia plebeia, a parish church, in a Carolingian land register.
In 940, Emperor Otto I granted the church to Waldo, Bishop of Chur. The nave and tower of the present building followed in the late eleventh or early twelfth century. The painted ceiling was installed after these structures had been completed, probably during the early twelfth century. Because the Diocese of Chur owned the church, the paintings were probably commissioned by Wido, Bishop of Chur from approximately 1095 to 1122. The painter or painters remain unknown. Lopicinus, an artist whose death at Chur Cathedral was recorded in 1147, has sometimes been connected with the work, but that record does not establish his involvement.
Medieval Additions
Between 1320 and 1340, the Waltensburger Meister, the conventional name for an unidentified regional painter or workshop, added the monumental image of Saint Christopher to the western entrance façade. Saint Christopher was a major western saint traditionally associated with carrying travellers safely and with protecting those who saw his image from sudden death.
In 1509, the entrance arch was widened and raised, while Andreas Bühler, an architect from Carinthia, added the late Gothic chancel. Gothic architecture developed after the Romanesque period and commonly used more complex vaults, larger windows, and articulated chancels. The new eastern addition therefore altered the earlier Romanesque church while leaving its central painted ceiling in place.
Reformation and Later Changes
Zillis joined the Reformed Church during the Swiss Reformation, around 1530 to 1535. This sixteenth-century movement created Protestant churches and challenged doctrines and practices of the medieval Western Church, including the sale of indulgences. Some interior wall paintings were destroyed during this period, possibly through iconoclasm, the removal or destruction of religious images. The painted ceiling survived, although its arrangement was probably altered during or after the Reformation. Scenes of John the Baptist preaching and Christ’s Temptation were removed from the central row, while miracle scenes and parables were inserted. The cleansing of the Temple replaced Christ’s baptism at the centre, a change that reflected Reformed opposition to the sale of indulgences.
In 1677, Peter Zurr installed the church’s present spire, and the nave windows may also have been enlarged at that time. An inscription records repair and restoration work on the ceiling in 1820, although the exact extent and authorship are unknown. Floral images were added in the ceiling corners during that renovation.
Rediscovery and Conservation
Julius Stadler drew attention to the ceiling after visiting the church in 1863. Johann Rudolf Rahn, a Swiss art historian, then researched and publicized it in studies published from 1870 onward, bringing wider recognition to its antiquity and artistic value.
Extensive work between 1938 and 1940 changed both the physical fabric and later interpretation of the ceiling. Erwin Poeschel directed the artistic and structural restoration and reconstructed its arrangement in 1939. The panels were removed, reorganized, and remounted on new beams. A new floor, pews, furnishings, and interior decoration were introduced, while concrete sections were added to improve fire safety and missing elements were replaced with copies. Henri Boissonnas applied wheatpaste to the paintings, an irreversible treatment that changed their colour and reflectivity and later contributed to damage. Parts of the original arrangement, some artwork, and several Biblical inscriptions were lost. Because the ceiling’s condition before the intervention had not been sufficiently recorded, the extent of Poeschel’s alterations remains uncertain, although later assessment considers them probably minor.
Preservation and documentation continued in 1971 and 1989. The 1989 program, directed by Christine Bläuer Böhm, developed into continuing monitoring and conservation. In 1990, the congregation moved its winter meetings elsewhere, except for special occasions such as Christmas, because the heating system installed in 1940 caused gradual damage through repeated changes in temperature and moisture. The church received a new organ by Orgelbau Felsberg in 1975. In 1988, it was included as an A-Class entry in the Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National Significance for Grisons and is recognized as a Swiss cultural property of national importance.
Remains
Saint Martin’s Church is an aisleless Romanesque building with a single nave beneath a gabled roof, a tower attached to the south near the southeast corner, and a raised chancel at the east. The western façade is a simple gabled wall of exposed stone masonry. The Romanesque nave has single-arched windows and small circular openings, while the later chancel has four paired windows. The chancel ends in three polygonal sides and is covered by a ribbed cross vault, a Gothic form in which ribs support the vaulted ceiling.
Romanesque Church and Gothic Chancel
Nave and Chancel
The nave preserves the principal Romanesque space, with its relatively flat ceiling and heavy masonry. Its central western entrance is surmounted by a round-headed single window. At the east, the elevated late Gothic chancel forms a distinct addition to the older structure. Its three-sided termination and ribbed vault contrast with the simpler Romanesque room and reflect the alteration made in 1509.
South Tower
The southern tower carries an octagonal pointed spire or hood, installed by Peter Zurr in 1677. On the village-facing side, beneath the belfry, a single-hand clock has a colourful dial almost as wide as the tower. The small Felsberg organ, built by Orgelbau Felsberg in 1975 as opus 30, stands beside the chancel arch. It has one 61-note manual, a straight 30-note pedalboard, mechanical action, and nine stops.
Saint Christopher Fresco
A large fresco of Saint Christopher covers the western entrance façade from just above ground level to the eaves. A canopy protects the painting. Its placement allowed people entering the church to see the saint, whose image was intended to protect viewers from sudden death.
Painted Wooden Ceiling
Construction and Arrangement
The nave ceiling is mostly flat and measures approximately 17 by 9 metres. It contains 153 square panels arranged in nine rows of seventeen, with each panel about 90 centimetres wide. Most are made of fir wood. A thin plaster-based ground called gesso was applied before painting, and the panels were painted while upright before being installed overhead. They were originally fixed with long nails, and some descriptions state that each panel was formed from three axe-worked boards.
The ceiling is divided into 48 border panels and 105 inner panels. The present arrangement may not reproduce the original order. The seven final panels show the life or legend of Saint Martin of Tours, but it remains uncertain whether the ceiling originally ended with this cycle or whether these scenes replaced seven images of Christ’s death, the Harrowing of Hell, and the Resurrection at an early date.
Border Imagery
Except for the four corner panels, the border shows watery scenes filled with waves, ships, and hybrid sea creatures. Fish-tailed beings and other composite creatures occupy the oceanic imagery, while three panels depict boats in scenes associated with Jonah and the miraculous catch of fish. The four corners contain angels personifying the four winds and announcing the Last Judgment.
The border was conceived as an ocean surrounding the terrestrial world represented in the inner zone. The sea creatures have also been interpreted as images of evil, sin, or the pagan world. Double ornamental borders emphasize the central strips and create a cross-shaped effect across the overall design. This division between an inhabited world and the surrounding ocean reflects a mappa mundi, a medieval world-picture joining geography with Christian history and cosmology.
Biblical and Christological Scenes
The 105 inner panels present a sequence of Biblical and Christological subjects. They include the ancestors of Christ, scenes from the Old Testament, the Annunciation, the Magi, the Flight into Egypt, and the Massacre of the Innocents at Bethlehem. Other panels show John the Baptist preaching, the baptism of Jesus, Christ’s teaching and miracles, the raising of Lazarus, the Last Supper, Judas’s betrayal, the arrest of Jesus, and the Passion as far as the Crown of Thorns. The final group turns to Saint Martin of Tours, a fourth-century Christian bishop whose cult made him a common church patron.
Paint and Artistic Interpretation
The ceiling is regarded as a nearly complete High Romanesque work that survived without general overpainting. Its pigments include gesso, white lead, red ochre or iron oxide, red lead, vermilion, green earth, ultramarine, orpiment, burnt umber, and vine black. Egg tempera, in which pigments are bound with egg, served as the medium. Ultramarine was made from lapis lazuli imported from distant medieval Afghanistan and was rare and expensive. Orpiment, a highly toxic yellow pigment, was probably used for backgrounds and fields.
Susanne Brugger-Koch and Marc Antoni Nay have argued that at least three artists worked on the panels. Their interpretation places two artists within the tradition of contemporary Milanese painters from Lombardy and considers a third possibly less formally trained local artist. Peter Wiesmann and Iso Müller proposed Byzantine artistic influence. A partial copy containing 65 of the 153 panels is held by the Swiss National Museum in Zurich.
