Bruder Klaus-Feldkapelle / Brother Klaus Field Chapel

Although the Bruder-Klaus-Feldkapelle is a work of architecture, it should be featured here because of its sculptural qualities. Built privately and with lots of volunteer help, the Chapel is dedicated to the patron saint of the Catholic Rural Youth Movement and Swiss saint of peace Nikolaus von Flüe (Bruder Klaus). Because of its small size, it is suited rather to private introspection and meditation than to large church services.
For the construction, 112 spruce trunks were taken from the surrounding forests and assembled into a tent-shape construction. Between this structure and the outer formwork, tamped concrete was laid in layers by volunteer helpers and skilled craftspersons over a period of 24 days, according to a regional craft tradition. The walls erected over a pentagonal ground plan remained open at the top to allow light and weather into the chapel. In autumn 2006, a fire that was kept burning for more than three weeks dried the tree trunks which could then be removed. The floor consists of a tin-lead alloy which was heated and distributed on site. 350 mouth-blown glass plugs close the fret holes that had been necessary to connect the inner and outer wooden formwork when the concrete was laid. The chapel has no altar, but there is a cast-brass sign of a wheel on one wall, modelled on the meditation sign Bruder Klaus had in his hermitage. On the floor is a stela with a bronze half figure of the saint with a relic, designed by Swiss sculptor Hans Josephsohn.
The small building looks block-like and minimalist. Despite its modern appearance, though, it draws on traditional craftsmanship, which is characteristic of the architect Peter Zumthor’s work.
The chapel is open from 10 am to 5 pm in summer and from 10 am to 4 pm in winter, closed on Mondays.

https://www.feldkapelle.de