The Lutheran Church in Geneva

By Catherine Courtiau

This magnificent “mansion” built in 1762–66 by and for the Lutheran Church of Geneva on the foundations of the Château d’Allinges-Coudrée stands elegantly at the bottom of the Place du Bourg-de-Four. Worthy of attention, its history is of great interest in terms of culture, philosophy and politics, but also for the details of its construction, structure and development. As early as 1921 the building was classified as a historical monument by Geneva’s Council of State (Conseil d’État).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gesellschaft für Schweizerische Kunstgeschichte
• Release date: Nov 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9783037977491

Book preview

Catherine Courtiau

The Lutheran Church in Geneva

Canton of Geneva

Introduction

The Lutheran Church in Geneva, 1707

Meetings in the house belonging to Madame Bergeon, 1707–1766

The purchase of the Château de Coudrée, 1762

The Bourg-de-Four

The project and the works, 1762–66

The Agreements of 9 May 1763

Construction and inauguration, 9 February 1766

Political events and their repercussions on the Lutheran Church

Geneva’s political, cultural and physical opening to the world, from 1847

The Lutheran Church of Geneva today

Description of the building of the Lutheran Church

The exterior

The gate and railings designed by Jean-Conrad Staib

The façade looking onto the Place du Bourg-de-Four

The façade on Rue Verdaine

The façade on Rue de la Fontaine

The interior

The stairwell

The basements and the vaulted cellar

The narthex and the sanctuary

The second floor, the pastors’ apartment

The third floor and the attic

In conclusion

Appendix

Introduction

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.

The Lutheran Church in Geneva, 1707

Following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 by Louis XIV, Lutherans living in Lyon were forbidden to practise their religion. Six merchants from that community therefore applied to the Vénérable Compagnie des Pasteurs and the authorities in Geneva for permission to observe their worship in the city. At the time, Geneva was considered the Protestant Rome, the epicentre of Calvinism, a city confined within fortified walls, and dominated by the Cathedral Saint-Pierre in the Old Town on the left bank of the Rhône, and by