Profile

Goal

The Swiss Religious Heritage Day is dedicated to current issues on church building in Switzerland. It supports the exchange between decision - makers from the church, historic preservation and the public as part of a congress, that takes place every two years.

On average, church buildings are renovated every thirty years. This involves mostly smaller or larger renovations and redesigns, with wich the rooms are adapted to new liturgical as well as aesthetic needs. Nowadays it is more often thought about, how churches and parish houses can get extended uses or whether they should be sold or demolished. 

The responsibility for the church properties lies with the parishes. These are accompanied by the historic preservation, where it is listed buildings. Church and historic preservation approach with different orders to rebuild/renovation projects. Against the background of their 2000 year history, churches have the order/mission to remain a living church. They assess building projects from a present and future perspective. The historic preservation has the task to ensure that the history of our society remains legible in the long term on important testimonies of its construction activity. It assesses building projects from the perspective of cultural memory. 

It is essential that the leaders of the church and the historic preservation know and understand each others mandates and concerns in order to work well together. The Swiss Religious Heritage Day offers a neutral forum for dialogue. Moreover, it is a platform for the exchange of questions, know-how and visions beyond canton and confessional boundaries. And finally, it also invites an extended public to communicate, in the conviction that churches are public buildings that belong to the generality. 

Organisation

From 2015 to 2023, the Centre of Competence for Liturgy at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Bern was responsible for organising the Swiss Religious Heritage Day. The scientific director was Prof. Dr Johannes Stückelberger, art historian, lecturer in religious and church aesthetics at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Bern and titular professor of modern art history at the University of Basel.

Since 2024, the organisation of the Swiss Religious Heritage Day has been shared between the University of Bern (Faculty of Theology, Centre of Competence for Liturgy), the Paulus Academy in Zurich and the Swiss St. Luke Society for Art and Church.

The Swiss Religious Heritage Day takes place every two years in form of a one-day congress. Specialists from the church, historic preservation, the university and the public are involved in the selection of topics, preparation and implementation. Depending on the resources, the topics of the congresses are scientifically prepared in form of publications and materials are made available on the website to the public. 

The congress is only financed with external resources by sponsors. The sponsors are listed at the respective conferences.