Church Sainte-Claire: A Medieval Convent Church in Vevey, Switzerland
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Switzerland
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Savoy, Holy Roman Empire, Swiss
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page14 sections
History
Church Sainte-Claire is a medieval church in Vevey, Switzerland, built around 1425 for a Catholic convent of Poor Clares, also known as Colettines. The convent was founded in 1422 by Amédée VIII, Duke of Savoy, and Saint Colette of Corbie in the former Vieux-Mazel quarter. It later became a Protestant temple after the Bernese conquest of the Pays de Vaud, retaining evidence of its successive religious and architectural transformations.
Foundation of the convent
The Poor Clares were a contemplative Catholic order of women associated with the Franciscan tradition, while the name Colettines refers to the reform linked with Saint Colette. Colette served as the convent’s first abbess for two or three years before leaving Vevey to establish the convent at Orbe. A master builder named Jaquemont constructed the church around 1425. By 1428, the complex also included a chapel dedicated to Saint George and another dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua.
In 1534, Vevey masons and carpenters established the Jesus–Mary–Joseph confraternity in one of these chapels. Two years later, the convent was secularized after Bern took control of the Pays de Vaud. The nuns fled to Evian, first taking refuge with the parish priest. Three later went to Annecy, two to Chambéry, and six travelled to Orbe on 26 June 1550, when the town was still Catholic.
Bernese rule and rebuilding
The former convent church was converted for Protestant worship and remained under the ownership of the Bernese authorities until the end of the Ancien Régime, the pre-revolutionary political and social order. It served both German- and French-speaking congregations for an extended period. Major rebuilding followed in 1611–1615, concentrating particularly on the upper parts of the building and the nave vaults. The work was directed by the Bernese architect Daniel Heintz and carried out by the Vevey master masons Claude Barbier and Antoine Loup.
The choir arch was decorated with the painted coats of arms of Bern and Abraham Stürler, treasurer of Romandy from 1611, alongside the date 1613. Arabesque paintings discovered on the vaults during the 1925 restoration probably belong to the same rebuilding phase.
Eighteenth-century restoration
By 1774, the church had deteriorated so badly that services were suspended. Niklaus Sprüngli first proposed a complete reconstruction, but its cost was judged excessive, so he prepared plans for a comprehensive restoration instead. The work repaired the structure, introduced a new portal, installed systematic galleries, enlarged the side-aisle windows, raised the arcades, altered the nave windows, and renewed the furnishings.
The restoration also changed the building’s proportions. The roof structures and side-aisle walls were raised, and the large arcades were increased from 150 to 180 centimetres. In 1778–1779, the city of Vevey paid for a new organ built by Samson Scherrer. Its external design was conceived by the Vevey painter Michel-Vincent Brandoin.
Restoration and protection
Further restoration campaigns took place in 1885, 1904, and 1925, with the last directed by the architect Adolphe Burnat. A campaign led by F. Echenard in 1957 removed the side and choir galleries and simplified the piers. These changes substantially altered the distinctive interior created when the former three-aisled Catholic church was adapted for Protestant worship.
Church Sainte-Claire was classified as a historic monument in 1900 and listed as a cultural property of regional importance in 1995. Its stained glass received a rating of 1 in the architectural survey. The Scherrer organ was modernized by Friedrich Goll in 1898 and underwent substantial maintenance in 2016. From 2020, its lost lyre-shaped feature was reconstructed under the supervision of Blumenroeder.
Remains
Church structure
Three-aisled church
The building retains the character of a three-aisled former Catholic church transformed into a Protestant temple. The 1775 restoration raised the roof structures and the walls of the side aisles, enlarged the side-aisle windows, and lifted the large arcades from 150 to 180 centimetres. The nave windows were moved higher and converted into oculi, round or eye-shaped openings.
Galleries and furnishings
Systematic galleries were introduced along the sides of the church and in the choir as elevated internal platforms for additional seating. They were removed in 1957. The eighteenth-century work also created a new portal opening onto the square, repaired the walls, and provided a new communion table and renewed pulpit. The pulpit was probably made by the Vevey cabinetmaker David Schade.
Choir arch and vaults
The choir arch preserves painted coats of arms of Bern and Abraham Stürler, accompanied by the date 1613. Arabesque paintings were found on the vaults during the 1925 restoration, linking these surviving decorations to the rebuilding carried out in the early seventeenth century.
Organ and stained glass
Scherrer organ
The organ built by Samson Scherrer in 1778–1779 retains its original case, carved by Dominique Martinetti and painted by Michel-Vincent Brandoin. In 1898, Friedrich Goll kept the case but replaced the entire pipework, approximately 1,300 pipes, converting the instrument into a Romantic-style organ with pneumatic transmission. This mechanism uses air pressure to carry the movement of the keys to the valves controlling the pipes.
Reconstructed lyre
A lyre-shaped feature once held several pipes and concealed the keyboards and organist from the nave. It was removed in 1957. Beginning in 2020, the woodcarver Marc Frohn and the gilders of the Meyer workshop reconstructed it from photographs and written documents. The work restored the feature’s form without any surviving original part.
Stained glass
The church’s stained glass forms the basis of its architectural-survey rating of 1, identifying it as a particularly highly rated aspect of the building’s architectural interest.
