Baroque Churches
back to overviewKatholische Pfarrkirche St. Vincentius*
Pleif | 7144 Vella
Mother church of the valley people, mentioned 840 AD; from a Carolingian hall church with three apsides of almost the same size excavated 1911 and made visible in the floor of the east end of today's nave; Carolingian complex torn down probably in the 12th century and reconstructed in the same shape on the old foundations. Around 1500 swiveled towards the west, with it the laying of apsides and construction of a polygonal choir with square-timber buttresses on the west side. 1661-62 Baroque renovation of the nave as well as displacement of the sacristy from the north to the south side of the choir; renovation 1930; restoration and excavation 1980-84.
North of the entrance façade freestanding Romanesque tower 12th/13th century, the uppermost storey altered around 1500, eight-sided pointed helm. Sacristy with gable-crowned niche, Baroque paintings within. The Baroque entrance façade structured using blind arches, sgraffiti on the other outside walls. Memorial slabs 14th/17th century on the tower and on the north church wall.
Flat moulding ceiling in the nave with square and rhombic sections from 1661, star vault with octagonal keystones in the Late Gothic choir. Windows with fish-blister (or fish-bladder, mouchette) tracery; wall tabernacle of tuff with blind tracery and merlon crown around 1500.
Two-storey, richly carved choir altar by Johannes Ritz 1726; tabernacle around 1640. Painted Renaissance altar on the north wall 1630 likely by Hans Jakob Gruetter. Oil painting with martyr of Saint Victor mid-17th century on the south wall, picture of Madonna facing it around 1700. Choir pews around 1650, the crowning dragons 1694. Glass pane with Saint Vinzens and Belmont and donors' coats of arms around 1315 (copy; original in the Swiss National Museum, Zurich).
Late Gothic choir arch crucifix around 1500. South side altar 1694; the north side altar 1734 by Johannes Sepp. Polygonal pulpit 1674. St. Annen altar on the north wall of the nave 1763 by Johannes Trubmann. Colossal picture of the battle by Lepanto 1630 by Giovanni Battista Macholino. Stations of the cross 1781. Polygonal baptismal font with zigzag (chevron), end of the 13th century. Organ 1957; renovated 1986.
(Kunstführer durch Graubünden, Hg. Gesellschaft für Schweizerische Kunstgeschichte. Eng. translation of the title: Art Guide of Graubünden, ed. Society for the History of Swiss Art, Zurich 2008. This book has only been published in German.)
North of the entrance façade freestanding Romanesque tower 12th/13th century, the uppermost storey altered around 1500, eight-sided pointed helm. Sacristy with gable-crowned niche, Baroque paintings within. The Baroque entrance façade structured using blind arches, sgraffiti on the other outside walls. Memorial slabs 14th/17th century on the tower and on the north church wall.
Flat moulding ceiling in the nave with square and rhombic sections from 1661, star vault with octagonal keystones in the Late Gothic choir. Windows with fish-blister (or fish-bladder, mouchette) tracery; wall tabernacle of tuff with blind tracery and merlon crown around 1500.
Two-storey, richly carved choir altar by Johannes Ritz 1726; tabernacle around 1640. Painted Renaissance altar on the north wall 1630 likely by Hans Jakob Gruetter. Oil painting with martyr of Saint Victor mid-17th century on the south wall, picture of Madonna facing it around 1700. Choir pews around 1650, the crowning dragons 1694. Glass pane with Saint Vinzens and Belmont and donors' coats of arms around 1315 (copy; original in the Swiss National Museum, Zurich).
Late Gothic choir arch crucifix around 1500. South side altar 1694; the north side altar 1734 by Johannes Sepp. Polygonal pulpit 1674. St. Annen altar on the north wall of the nave 1763 by Johannes Trubmann. Colossal picture of the battle by Lepanto 1630 by Giovanni Battista Macholino. Stations of the cross 1781. Polygonal baptismal font with zigzag (chevron), end of the 13th century. Organ 1957; renovated 1986.
(Kunstführer durch Graubünden, Hg. Gesellschaft für Schweizerische Kunstgeschichte. Eng. translation of the title: Art Guide of Graubünden, ed. Society for the History of Swiss Art, Zurich 2008. This book has only been published in German.)
