City Church
(Link 1.)

Stadtkirche Biel/City Church

Biel, Switzerland

"Biel/Bienne is a city in the district of the Biel/Bienne administrative districtin the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

"Biel/Bienne is on the language boundary between the French speaking and German speaking parts of Switzerland, and is throughout bilingual.Biel is the German name for the town, Bienne its French counterpart.

"The city lies at the foot of the first mountain range of the Jura Mountains area,... on the northeastern shores of Lake Biel ...." (Link 1.)

Biel

(Link 1.)

"The Stadtkirche Biel is appreciated for its well-balanced proportions and the simplicity of the interior.  Originally dedicated to St. Benedict of Nursia, the church was first mentioned in 1228 in the Lausanne cartulary (directory). Up until 1798, the city of Biel fell secularly under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Basel, while being ecclesiastically part of the Diocese of Lausanne until the Reformation in 1528. 

City Church

 "The two previous churches dating from the Romanesque and Gothic eras are covered by walls and building works. A detailed architectural history of these two previous buildings is no longer accessible because of the tuffaceous soil conditions and the installation of the heating system in the early 20th century. The former sacristy in its crypt-like setting under the choir may still be seen." (Link 2.)

Front Doors

The front double doors of the Biel City Church are of a Gothic design. The stone arch holds both the dark wood doors and the stone ribbed lancet arch above. The deep reddish-brown wood doors are trimmed with black wrought iron horizontal tree of life designs.  Above the doors the pointed arch holds decorate stone tracery over a bright blue background.

Sanctuary

Features of the Sanctuary are the organ pipes, the vaulted ceiling, and the arcade.  The organ pipes are in four sets of graduated sized pipes.  The curved wood ribs of the pointed vaulted ceiling set off the multitude of scattered blue flowers in this pale sky.  The arches and columns of the arcade can be seen along the sides of the photo above.

Sanctuary Windows

The top of the tall narrow stained glass windows in the sanctuary repeat the pointed arch of the church ceiling.  The multiple rectangular panels of glass tell a story.

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Photos: Taken in June 2014 by Richard Wilson while living and working in 

                 Basel, Switzerland. 

Link 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biel/Bienne
Link 2: http://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ca/reformed-church-biel-bienne.html
Link 3: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_architecture

Prayer

God, be with persecuted Christians through out the world. Amen (SW.)