Sion Cathedral: Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Sion in Switzerland
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Switzerland
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Holy Roman Empire, Swiss
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page17 sections
History
Sion Cathedral, also called Notre-Dame du Glarier, is the principal church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sion in Sion, Switzerland. It serves as the bishop’s church and cathedral parish church, belongs to the Cathedral Chapter, and is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Its patronal feast, the Assumption, is celebrated on 15 August. The present building combines a Romanesque bell tower with a late-Gothic church whose rebuilding took place mainly between 1450 and 1500.
From the Carolingian church to the Romanesque cathedral
The bishop’s seat moved from Martigny, ancient Octodurum, to Sion toward the end of the sixth century. The location of an episcopal church in Sion before the eighth century is unknown. The first church on the present site was built during the Carolingian period, the era of the Carolingian dynasty and its political and cultural revival under rulers such as Charlemagne and his successors. This church dated from the eighth or ninth century and was destroyed by fire in 1010.
A Romanesque cathedral was constructed after the fire. Romanesque architecture is characterized by massive construction and rounded forms. The cathedral remained substantially unchanged until the fifteenth century, although the building and its surroundings were connected to the changing position of the bishops. During the period when the bishops also exercised secular territorial authority as prince-bishops, the castle and basilica of Valeria housed the Cathedral Chapter and served as a representative center of the prince-bishopric. The cathedral dignity, however, remained with Notre-Dame du Glarier.
Late-medieval destruction and rebuilding
The Romanesque cathedral was severely affected by fires and warfare in the late Middle Ages. In 1352, troops of Amadeus VI, the fourteenth-century count of Savoy, looted and burned the church. An accidental fire during the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1403, a Christian festival devoted to the Eucharist, destroyed the bell-tower roof and melted the bells. In 1418, Guichard of Rarogne and his supporters devastated the cathedral.
Between 1450 and 1500, the nave was replaced by a Gothic structure built on the foundations of the Romanesque church. Gothic architecture commonly emphasizes pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and greater verticality. The rebuilding took place under Bishops Walter Supersaxo, Jost of Silenen, Nicholas Schiner, and Cardinal Matthew Schiner. Together with the Romanesque tower, the late-Gothic nave forms the essential fabric of the cathedral that survives today.
Later changes and continuing religious use
The roof was damaged in the fire that destroyed much of Sion in 1788. The cathedral’s choir was extended eastward by two bays in 1947 and 1948 on the initiative of Bishop Viktor Bieler, who led the Diocese of Sion from 1919 to 1952. The last stated restoration took place in 1986. The cathedral has been designated a Swiss cultural property of national importance and is protected under heritage law.
An organ has been associated with the cathedral since 1370. The building continues to function as the episcopal church and cathedral parish church of the Diocese of Sion, maintaining the institutional and liturgical role that has shaped its history.
Remains
Sion Cathedral is an east-facing, three-aisled basilica with a transept and an elongated choir. Brick is among its recorded building materials. The surviving structure brings together the massive Romanesque bell tower and the late-Gothic nave, while chapels, altars, paintings, sculpture, and musical furnishings preserve evidence of successive periods of religious use.
Romanesque tower and Gothic church
Bell tower and portal
The massive Romanesque bell tower has a conical spire and forms a prominent element of Sion’s cityscape. Its tower-porch was built around the transition from the twelfth to the thirteenth century, and its first storey was completed in the early thirteenth century. The portal tympanum contains a fresco in the style of the North Italian Trecento, the Italian fourteenth century. It shows the Virgin Mary surrounded by two saintly bishops and donor figures.
Nave, transept, and choir
The nave belongs to the late-Gothic rebuilding carried out between 1450 and 1500 on the foundations of the Romanesque church. It forms part of the basilica’s three-aisled plan, which also includes a transept and an elongated choir. The choir was extended eastward by two bays in 1947 and 1948, giving the present church a physical arrangement shaped by both its medieval rebuilding and its twentieth-century alteration.
Chapels and painted decoration
Saint Barbara’s Chapel
Saint Barbara’s Chapel was erected in 1474 by Bishop Walter Supersaxo on the right side of the transept. Its Gothic altar represents the Virgin Mary, Saint Acacius, and Saint Barbara, while Supersaxo’s tomb lies in front of the altar. Frescoes uncovered in 1948 depict the wise and foolish virgins, Saint George and the princess, and the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. They are attributed to the Bavarian master Thomas von Landsberg and date from 1475. A late-Gothic crucifix dated 1520 is mounted above the chapel’s entrance grille.
Saint Anthony’s Chapel
Saint Anthony’s Chapel contains a Baroque altar dating from 1683. Saint Anthony, the hermit of Egypt, occupies its center. The painted motifs derive from former cathedral altars dating from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, including a depiction of Saint Anthony of Padua by Jacques-Arnold Koller.
Altarpiece and interior furnishings
Jesse Triptych
The late-Gothic high altar is the Jesse Triptych, a triptych being a three-part altarpiece with a central panel and two wings. It formerly stood in Saint Theodul Church and was remodeled in 1947. Its original wings were deposited in Saint Barbara’s Chapel. The fifteenth-century central panel represents the passage from Isaiah 11:1, with a vine emerging from the loins of the sleeping Jesse and Mary and Christ appearing at its summit. The central scene is surrounded by the Trinitarian Saint Anne, Judith, John the Evangelist, and Saint Roch. The left wing shows the Annunciation, while the right wing presents the Nativity, Saint Theodul, and Saint Barbara. The Jesse Tree represents Christ’s genealogy through Jesse, the father of King David.
Pulpit and gallery
The pulpit was built between 1622 and 1626. Its marble base was made by Hans Studer and bears the arms of Canon Johann Lergien. Hans-Georg Miller and Balthazar Megelin carved the reliefs on the pulpit body, showing Christ as the Lamb of God surrounded by the symbols of the Four Evangelists. An artistic wrought-iron stair rail dating from 1633 leads to the pulpit. The gallery is decorated with stucco and bears the arms of Prince-Bishop Frédéric Ambuel and the Cathedral Chapter, dated 1780.
Organ and bells
Historic organ
The present organ was built, last restored, and partly rebuilt in 1988 by Hans Füglister. Its case comes from an instrument made in 1786 by Casper Carlen, with a case produced by Matthäus Carlen. Some pipework from earlier instruments remains in the present organ. Joseph Merklin revised the originally two-manual instrument in 1874, altering its specification and enlarging it to 23 stops. In 1912, Henri Carlen of Glis remodeled and enlarged it, adding a third manual and converting it to pneumatic action. The current slider-chest organ has 49 stops, three manuals, and a pedal, with mechanical action.
Bell peal
The tower contains a seven-bell peal. Two of the large bells date from the fifteenth century, while the other five were made between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.
