Scenes from the Life of Mary

History of the work

The entrance hall of St Mary's church opens with three round arches between the tower and the baptistery. In the jambs of the main portal behind it, reliefs show scenes from the life of Mary: according to Wikipedia, her presentation in the temple, her death among the apostles, the Assumption and the Coronation. The city's data describe the material as stone, Wikipedia as cast stone. The two side portals also carry reliefs, the right one for example the betrothal, the Annunciation and the Visitation, the left one a Pietà.

They were made by the Geneva sculptor François Baud together with Gaston Faravel. The church itself was designed by Fernand Dumas from Romont, who won a competition among four architects in 1930; Karl Indermühle sat on the jury. The foundation stone was laid on 31 March 1931 and the church was consecrated on 17 May 1933. The building inventory counts it among the earliest buildings of early modernism in Bern. Baud and Faravel later also supplied the font and the side altars in majolica (1940).

François Baud, born in Paris in 1889 and died in Geneva in 1960, was a sculptor, copyist and restorer. SIKART names figures of saints, liturgical furnishings and funerary art in western Switzerland as his main fields. According to the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland he worked with the Geneva Groupe de Saint-Luc, which set out in the 1920s to renew Catholic church art. Gaston Faravel (1901–1947) from Lausanne was a painter, decorator and stage designer and had studied with René Auberjonois. A newspaper article from 1935 explicitly lists Bern among his many church commissions.

Inside, the mosaic of the Assumption (1937) and the stained-glass windows (1940–1943) by Albin Schweri shape the space. Above the porch it is worth looking up: according to Wikipedia, the large round window of the west front is divided by cubic ribs in the shape of an 'M'.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikipedia (de): Marienkirche (Bern) · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Wylerstrasse 26 (PDF) · SIKART: François Baud · SIKART: Gaston Faravel · HLS: Groupe de Saint-Luc (Camille Noverraz) · Les Echos de Saint-Maurice 1935: Gaston Faravel, peintre et décorateur · Wikimedia Commons: Hauptportal Marienkirche Bern