St. Peter and Paul Church, Catholic church on Ufenau Island, Switzerland
St. Peter and Paul is a single-nave Romanesque church with a choir tower on Ufenau Island. Its tower carries a steep gabled roof of 1630, called a Käsbissen in Switzerland, and the 12th-century portal reuses a 10th-century lintel with simple ornament. A two-storey sacristy was added on the north side in the 13th or 14th century.
The present church was built in 1141 on the foundations of a 10th-century predecessor founded by Duchess Regelinda of Swabia and dedicated to her son, Saint Adalrich. Before that, a Gallo-Roman temple stood on the site in the 1st or 2nd century; its foundations were found in 1959. The church was restored between 2007 and 2009.
The chancel arch pillars carry paintings of Saint Adalrich and his mother Regelinda, the church's founder, probably from the 15th century. Late Gothic wooden statues of the two apostle princes stand beside the arch, carved in the second half of the 16th century. A Gothic grave slab of 1372 in the nave shows the island saint Adalrich in incised technique.
The church stands on Ufenau Island and is reached by boat from Pfäffikon; the crossing is short and the island is small, so the church is a few minutes' walk from the landing. The building is a single-nave Romanesque church with a chancel tower, and the 2007–2009 restoration left the interior open for viewing. Allow time to walk around the churchyard, where the Hutten gravestone lies south of the building.
The 12th-century portal reuses a 10th-century lintel carved with a simple ornament. South of the church, not inside it, stands the gravestone of Ulrich von Hutten, who died on Ufenau on 29 August 1523 after seeking refuge in Switzerland.
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