The primary reason for venturing to Switzerland was to gape and gawk at these hyper-cubic Brutalist churches. They are sights and sites to beyond! Massive, concrete, and crenulated out the wazoo, the attention to detail in every odd corner of the spaces is remarkable. We also find great pleasure is the fusion of the ultra-modern with the dusty echoes of biblical imagery. There's something of a Dune vibe in these spaces as well (thinking of the spectacular future-Brutes of the recent movies).
This was the first one we visited, and it was amazing. Everywhere you looked was fascinating composition and details. Designed by Walter Maria Förderer (1928-2006) and built between 1964 and 1969. As we venture through the mountains, we'll see several other of Förderer's designs. Förderer was Swiss, so he was a local architectural hero. He's considered a post-functionalist, which were the beginnings of deconstructivism but not out of hand like Post-Modern. He earned that moniker because not everything you see is purely functional. On the other hand, this is a church, which has expectations of ornamentation, creating the opportunity for Förderer to have some (actually, a great deal of!) fun. Not surprisingly, he eventually gave up architecture in 1978 to become a sculptor.
All the churches we visited were open except one, even if there was nobody there. For the most part, we had the churches to ourselves except for the occasional Brute-head.
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