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Bundeskapelle chapel

The ‘Dreifaltigkeitskapelle’ (‘Chapel of the Holy Trinity’), also known as the ‘Bundekapelle’, is located on the very spot where the second oath-taking of the Old Swiss Confederacy is said to have taken place in 1315.

After the alliance formed by the three founding cantons on the Rütli meadow in 1291 proved its worth at the Battle of Morgarten, the cantons renewed their alliance against foreign reeves in Brunnen in 1315. This is the spot where the chapel dedicated to the Holy Trinity was built to commemorate the event.

A large section of the village was razed to the ground by a fire on 16 May 1620. The village was then rebuilt according to old plans. In the course of these events, the chief magistrate Heinrich Reding acquired a plot in the centre of the village and there built the Bundeskapelle chapel in 1632. His son Wolf Dietrich sponsored the altarpiece, a work by Justus von Egmont, a student of Rubens. It was one of his most valuable paintings and is today owned by the canton of Schwyz. The chapel also contains two wooden figures plastered in white, which represent Saint Henry and Saint Helena. There are statues of the apostles Peter and Paul on the side wall – these were presumably taken from the Chapel of the 14 Holy Helpers. The pietà is a replica of an artwork stolen from the chapel in 1980. The chapel was restored in 1990, returning the space to its original proportions and sanctity.

 

Location and contact

Bundeskapelle
Bahnhofstrasse
6440 Brunnen
+41 (0)41 820 18 63
kontaktpfarrei-ingenbohl.ch
www.pfarrei-ingenbohl.ch