St. Pierre Cathedral

St. Pierre Cathedral of Geneva
Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Genève
St. Pierre Cathedral
St. Pierre Cathedral of Geneva Location of St. Pierre Cathedral in Switzerland
46°12′4″N 6°8′55″E / 46.20111°N 6.14861°E / 46.20111; 6.14861Coordinates: 46°12′4″N 6°8′55″E / 46.20111°N 6.14861°E / 46.20111; 6.14861
Country	Switzerland
Denomination	Calvinist
Website	St. Pierre Cathedral
History
Status	Cathedral
Founded	4th century
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance
Style	Gothic

The St. Pierre Cathedral cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland, was built as a Roman Catholic cathedral, but became a Reformed Protestant Church of Geneva church during the Reformation. It is known as the adopted home church of John Calvin, one of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation. Inside the church is a wooden chair used by Calvin.

History

Although this has been the site of a cathedral (a chruch that is the seat of a [[bishop,) since the fourth century, the present building was begun under Arducius de Faucigny, the prince-bishop of the Diocese of Geneva, around 1160, in Gothic style. The interior of the large, cruciform, late-gothic church was stripped of its rood screen, side chapels, and all decorative works of art, leaving a vast, white-washed interior that contrasts sharply with the interior of surviving medieval churches in countries that continued to be part of the Roman Catholic Church. A Neo-Classical main facade was added in the 18th century. In the 1890s, Genevans redecorated a large, side chapel adjacent to the cathedral's man doors in polychrome, gothic revival style. The German painter Konrad Witz painted an altarpiece, the so-called St. Peter Altarpiece, for the Cathedral in 1444, now in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva, which contains his composition, the Miraculous Draught of Fishes.

Currently, every summer a German Protestant minister is present, making it possible to hold bilingual services and meetings of both German and French Protestant worshippers.

Bells

Gallery

• 
  Spire of St. Pierre Cathedral
• 
  Front entrance of the Cathedral at night
• 
  John Calvin's chair
• 
  Jet d'Eau from the north tower of the Cathedral
• 
  Ceiling of the Maccabees Chapel

Further reading

• Bonnet, Charles (February 1987), "The Archaeological Site of the Cathedral of Saint Peter (Saint-Pierre), Geneva", World Archaeology, Taylor & Francies, Ltd, 18 (3): 330–340, doi:10.1080/00438243.1987.9980010, JSTOR 124589

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saint-Pierre Cathedral, Geneva.

• Official St Pierre Cathedral website—(in French)
• Izi.travel: Cathedral visitor's guide—(in English)
• Tibet.ca: "The Dalai Lama visits to the Cathedral" (1999)—(in English)

Images

• Gotik-romanik.de: photos of Cathedral
• Rawle.org: Aerial view of entire Cathedral
• UCLA.edu: Cathedral's stained glass windows
• Musiqueorguequebec.ca: Cathedral organ