Description

Situated on the site of an earlier sawmill, resting on twelve wall slabs on rocky terrain on both sides of the River Reichenbach and built of in situ, lightweight and fair-faced concrete, the church stands in a Black Forest valley running west to east. The flat roof, with the truncated cone of the lead-clad skylight in the middle, stands out from the steep slopes. The block-like structure, more or less square in plan, appears closed towards the top and more open at the bottom. The bell tower projects on the south side, its plan section in the form of a “U”. The concrete of its exterior, which bears traces of the vertical saw-cut formwork, contrasts with the smooth surface of the four large walls of the church.

The forecourt slopes down in the direction of the entrance to the weekday church and rises towards the entrance to the Sunday church. Passing to one side of a fountain, one enters the building through a wide portal. The space measures a good 31 metres from north to south and more than 34 metres from west to east. The altar, the ambo and the font stand on circular islands, all three highlighted by light from above. The massive truncated cone above the circular altar, clad in yellow-stained timber slats and surrounded by four roof beams, accentuates the most important item among the objects of the liturgy. The 3.65 metre high molten glass and chromium steel column with the tabernacle – a work by the artist Florian Lechner – is also in a prominent position.

The zone with the liturgical elements is clearly marked by its grainy brushed concrete floor. Around this central point are the pews, arranged in three blocks, all made of ash and slightly inclined to the front, so that the congregation can better follow the proceedings. The organist and the choristers, due to their position between the rows of pews to the west and the north, become part of the celebrating congregation. In front of the seldom-used gallery on the east side, a hollow opens up with two staircases leading down into the weekday church and the sacristy. The lowest level of the building – reached mainly from the north, behind a small park with a pond and a tree – is used for social and cultural activities.

With regard to its architecture, St John the Baptist Church is heavily influenced by Le Corbusier’s monastery Sainte Marie de La Tourette in Eveux-sur-Arbresle. The church in Hornberg, however, forms the nucleus of a larger complex near the viaduct of the Black Forest Railway, as further buildings adjoin the central area: to the north a children’s centre and a sisters’ hospice, in the east the priest’s residence with the library and dwellings for the clergy, in the south – beyond a narrow road – ten markedly staggered dwelling houses. Since it was designed by one and the same hand, the ensemble is exceptionally coherent and carefully structured. It testifies to the ideal of a Catholic community that, not long after, would no longer have been realisable in the same manner.

Baumeister, no. 8/1973, pp. 1023- | Beton Prisma, no. 29/1974, pp. 3- | Deutsche Bauzeitschrift, no. 7/1974, p. 1227- | Disse, Rainer: Kirchliche Zentren, Entwurf und Planung, Vol. 24, Munich 1974, pp. 122- | Glasforum, no. 6/1974, pp. 29- | Hoffmann, Gretl: Dekorative Türen. Einzelanfertigungen und Sonderkonstruktionen in Metall, Glas und Holz, Stuttgart 1977, p. 70 | Hoffmann, Gretl, Maurach, Jürgen: Schmiede- und Schlosserarbeiten von heute. 300 Beispiele von Gartentoren und Einfahrten, von Trenn- und Fenstergittern, von Treppen- und Brüstungsgeländern, Leuchtern und Kreuzen, Stuttgart (n.d.) 1974, p. 133, p. 135, pp. 152- | Katholisches Pfarramt Hornberg / Schwarzwaldbahn (Ed.): Katholisches Zentrum Hornberg, Lahr (n.d.) 1976 | Lindstrom, Randall S.: Creativity and Contradiction. European Churches since 1970, Washington D.C. 1988, p. 57, p. 102, p. 144

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Originally published in: Rudolf Stegers, Sacred Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2008.