Читать книгу The Lutheran Church in Geneva - Catherine Courtiau - Страница 3

The focus of this brochure is the history and architecture of the Lutheran Church, which stands like a handsome mansion in the Old Town of Geneva, its stately façade and small garden enclosed by elegant railings and an outstanding wrought-iron gate looking onto the Place Bourg-de-Four. From the two basement levels, one with a vaulted ceiling, up to the attics and roof structure, the distribution and functions of the spaces and the configuration of the stairwell are of great interest. The double-height sanctuary is noteworthy for its four successive organs, liturgical furniture and decorative objects. The building’s historical and architectural value is great, being one of the first buildings to be classified as a historical monument by Geneva’s Council of State (Conseil d’État), on 30 December 1921!

This publication summarises the study carried out by the author in 2019 on behalf of the Office for the Heritage and Sites of the Canton of Geneva, which includes the transcriptions of various historical notarial deeds, contracts, reports and inventories stored in the Lutheran community’s archives.

The main façade of the church in spring 2021, with its small garden behind the gate and railings made by Jean-Conrad Staib. This is the view from the Bourg-de-Four. On the left is the old hospital and Rue de la Fontaine; on the right is the Palais de Justice and Rue Verdaine.

One chapter is devoted to the Château de Coudrée and its purchase in 1762 for the Lutheran community, who then organised the construction of the current building on the chateau’s medieval foundations. The Lutherans abided by the directive that the exterior of the building, inaugurated in 1766, could show no ostentatious sign of its religious affiliation.

The history of the Lutheran community, whose presence in Geneva was not permitted until 1707, is briefly recapped, but reference is made here to the “portrait” sketched in 1991 in analyses and summaries by various authors, and the invaluable trilingual publication (German, French, English) by Barbara Blum, published in 2007 to accompany the exhibition that marked the 300 years of the Lutheran Church in Geneva, which was reissued and expanded in 2016 to mark the 250th anniversary of the new building under the evocative title A House of Living Stones.