
Bruder Klaus Kapelle
One of my favorite experiences on my recent trip was discovering the Bruder Klaus Kapelle by Swiss Architect Peter Zumthor, recent winner of the Pritzker Prize, one of the highest honors for an architect. Since 1979, Zumthor has run a small practice in a remote village in the Swiss mountains and takes on very few commissions.
The chapel was definitely off the beaten path. T did quite a bit of preliminary research to find the chapel’s location and even with the wonders of Google Earth, we still ended up driving into a field and running into some tractors before finding how to get to it! The chapel is located on a farm in the tiny town of Wachendorf in Mechernick, Germany, near Cologne. On the google map (below), it lies in the fields between In der Rüsche and RissdorferWeg. The access road to a parking area is near In der Rusche.
The approach to the Chapel is part of the experience. After parking, you walk about 20 minutes on a dirt path through fields. The building reveals itself as you approach and are led around it. At first you see only one side, then the light gradually reveals that the structure is a parallelagram. On the final approach you see the triangular steel entrance door and small cross above that indicates its function.
The Chapel, completed in 2007 and dedicated to St. Nikolaus von der Flüe, was commissioned by farmer Hermann-Josef and Trudel Scheidtweilerand built by them with friends and acquaintances. It carries on the tradition of chapels built on private land and it’s construction is fitting for its setting. The interior was formed by 112 tree trunks configured as a tent.

rammed concrete exterior and interior detail
“[Zumthor’s] buildings have a commanding presence, yet they prove the power of judicious intervention, showing us again and again that modesty in approach and boldness in overall result are not mutually exclusive. Humility resides alongside strength. While some have called his architecture quiet, his buildings masterfully assert their presence, engaging many of our senses, not just our sight but also our senses of touch, hearing and smell.” (Pritzer Prize committee)
We were lucky to visit another of Zumthor’s works in Cologne, the Kolumba Diocesan Museum.
The Kolumbia was build in 2006/2007 around the remains of the Gothic St. Koluma Church which was destroyed in World War II. In this work, you can definitely see Zumthor’s celebration of the essence of materials whether concrete, steel or burled wood. As an art historian, I was also impressed by the curatorial decisions in displaying the collection. Medieval relics were successfully displayed next to contemporary pieces. Zumthor successfully brought together 2,000 years of art, ruins from a gothic church and contemporary concrete and steel in a very complex, exquisitely detailed and crafted space. The scale is very different from the Klaus Chapel, but even amongst the complexity, the sense of quiet remains.