Chapel of the Apostolic congregation at Helvetiastrasse 23

About the building

On Helvetiastrasse, among apartment houses, stands a small chapel that turns its gable to the street. It was built in 1894 in the Romanesque Revival style and rises above a high base of polygonal chunks of limestone. Broad pilaster strips in corner bond frame the façades but do not reach down over the base. The entrance front holds a round-arched doorway whose door is decorated with blind tracery. In front of it stands a porch with a triangular gable on slender columns that follow early Gothic models.

Each long side has four tall round-arched windows whose hood mouldings end in curled volutes on both sides. Between the windows sit brick pilaster strips, joined below the roof into panels by a round-arched frieze. To the east follows a three-sided choir with round-arched windows; their surrounds have inset columns on cushion bases, and the lintels are decorated with round and spiral mouldings.

The client was the Apostolic congregation; the building inventory adds the name Ed. Bühler in brackets, and the architect is unknown. According to the inventory, the chapel survives in its original state. In 1922 a sacristy was added at the south-east corner, and in 2010 an underground extension with community rooms was built, designed by the architect Severin K. Maurer of Kerzers. The original fence with bevelled posts also survives.

The chapel belongs to the Kirchenfeld district, which was developed from 1881 according to a binding district plan. The English Berne Land Company, which built the Kirchenfeld Bridge for this purpose, had undertaken to hand over land for public buildings and churches free of charge. The building is rated as worthy of protection and belongs to the Kirchenfeld building group. Look at the porch with its slender columns: it looks almost delicate in front of the heavy stone base.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Helvetiastrasse 23 · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Quartiergeschichte Kirchenfeld-Brunnadern · Wikidata: Q128549184