St. Lorenz, Heritage church in Paspels, Switzerland

St. Lorenz is a church located in Paspels within the Domleschg municipality in Grisons, displaying traditional Swiss architectural design. The building features detailed craftsmanship throughout its interior and exterior structure.

A burial ground existed on the hill before any building; a first chapel probably stood in the 7th century, and blind arcades on the south side of the tower point to construction in the 11th century. St. Lorenz is first documented in 1237, when a parish priest was appointed, and it was likely the main church of the whole right side of the valley. In 1464 a papal bull records the patronage rights passing from the Barons of Vaz to the Premonstratensian monastery of Churwalden; after 1513 the church is mentioned only as a chapel. In 1786 the monastery handed it to the Catholic parish of Paspels.

The chapel is dedicated to Saint Lawrence, called Sogn Luregn in Romansh. It is used only a few times a year, so it is not a regular parish church. A papal bull of 1464 names it as "S. Laurentius probe Baschuals" and records its patronage passing to the Premonstratensian monastery of Churwalden.

St. Lorenz stands at 840 m on a hilltop north of Paspels, at the edge of a knoll dropping vertically to the west and north. The chapel is reached on foot from the village; the tower's ground floor forms a vestibule before the entrance into the nave. A second door in the east wall is now walled up.

The marble altar slab, 108 cm long and 7 cm thick, was dated by Erwin Poeschel to the 8th century; four square hollows on its underside show it once rested on supports as a table altar. Inside the altar's base a white marble reliquary held a gilded silver box and bones wrapped in fine silk of oriental origin, dated to the 6th or 7th century.