I first spotted the Pauluskirche, as it’s called in German, while passing on a tram to somewhere else. One glance, and I knew I had to go back, although I had no idea how glad I would be that I did.
What I was expecting was an old church, neo-Romanesque in style, handsomely proportioned. What I found instead was a relatively new church with an amazingly graceful blend of neo-Romanesque forms and massing, with a wealth of Art Nouveau decoration.
Later, I found that it was the work of Karl Moser, a leading Basel architect of his time, and the designer of Basel’s ultra-modern 1920s St Anthony Church, which I wrote about in a previous TravelGumbo blog. The two churches, and the Badischebahnhof across town, show Moser’s style shifting over two decades.
Personal opinion, I admit, but while I was stunned by the St Anthony church and its ‘painting-with-light’ effects, this one is my favorite.
To be fair, the work is not all Moser’s; when this church was built between 1898 and 1901, he was working in partnership with Robert Curjel on most projects, and the artwork was executed by the sculptor Carl Burckhardt whose fabulous relief work is all over the exterior (although surprisingly not noticeable at a distance). Mosaics by Heinrich Altherr and stained-glass windows by Max Laeuger add a lot, too.
The inscription in the picture above, Dein Reich Komme (Thy Kingdom Come) is so interwoven with the decorative themes it didn’t hit me at first that I was reading at all.
A great deal of attention to detail is clear in some of the church’s metal fittings and doors, as well as more ‘important’ features such as the altar and stained glass windows.
Stepping into the sanctuary of the church—a word I’m using because the layout of the church doesn’t easily fit into conventional nave/apse/choir forms, but seems more like entering a theatre.
To the left and right of the altar are the Altherr mosaics.
Nearby, two pairs of large stained-glass windows, each pair in a different color range from the other
More of the detailed carving that marks the whole of the interior, including the lower image which includes a squirrel crawling on the relief greenery.
On the face of the organ, an image of David as the psalmist, above the words that translate as ‘all who draw breath, praise the Lord’.
An image from the rose window, and a complex ceiling decoration, seen through its chandelier.
On leaving, with the light behind them, the glass work in the front doors suddenly becomes a garden, perhaps meant as a transition to the green park just outside. Below, even the collection box for donations is a work of art.
