Hello. My fiancee and I were looking to have our wedding ceremony done in a church in Switzerland. Our first choice was Lugano, but the San Rocco Church we discovered is not available for weddings. We wanted to know if there were any churches in St. Moritz that were beautiful like the San Rocco Church in Lugano( If anyone knows this church, it has beautiful frescoes painted all around and a huge organ at the front). I know there are 2 churches in St. Moritz, but beyond that, I cannot find more info. If anyone has any information on classical churches in the area, we would love to hear from you. Thank you!

Hi m1key,

This site may not answer all your questions, but it's a place to start, especially under "locations":

http://www.myweddinginswitzerland.com/index.htm

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Hi swandav2000,
Thank you for the reply. The website is very informative and I appreciate the help. Thanks again!

Mike

I was in the church in the center of St. Moritz, and it was quite plain. The churches of Zurich are also rather underwhelming, in my opinion.

The Jesuit Church in Lucerne is quite beautiful, however, and, although I haven't been there myself, Einseldein (sp?) Abbey has a gorgeous baroque interior. Perhaps one of these is available?

Do you have a preference form outains or city? Do you have a religious preference for the church you want to be married in? Also, you need to file a lot of paperwork to get married in Switzerland and it all have to be translated. You need to start looking into this now.

I agre that most churches are qutie plain – blame the Reformation. However you can find some beautiful chuches. I think you may be better off in the Tocino, as the Italian-influenced churcnes may have survived the ravages of the Refomation.

I think St Gallen has a gorgoues barouque interior, some people consider it the most beatiufl church in Switzerland. Take a look at http://www.pbase.com/image/61227524 for a photo. This is about an hour by train from Zurich quite near Lake Constance. Another very beautiful church is in Solothurn, take a look at www.solothurn-city.ch . This is about an hour from Geneva.

In Zurich, I think the Wasserkirche (the Waterchurch) is very lovely. It is more like a chapel, it is quite small. A simple but pretty gothic interior and it has stained glass windows by Augusto Giacometti. It is along the river acrros from the Fraumunster. You may never have seen it on a trip to Zurich as most toruists never go into it. Another very lovely church is the Evangelical Reformed Church in the Enge district. Again, this is a church that no tourist would visit, they rarely go to Enge district. The church’s website is at http://www.kirche-enge.ch/content/index_ger.html (German only, but if you send an e-mail in English with an inquiry you will undoubtedly get a reply in English), they don’t have any interior phots but you can see the outside. Zurich would certainly be convient for a wedding and foreign guests and a reception.

A very simple chruch but one in a spectcualr setting is the Reformed Church in Wengen. It hugs the side of the mountain on Haupstrasse at the edge of the village. There is also a tiny woooden almost log-cain like chapel in town as well. There is a church in the villate of Spiez on Lake Thun which has frescos, you might do a search for that.

While not quite frescos, there is the Benedictine convent of St John in Mustair, which has a church with beautfil murals. This is a bit isloated as it is very far east of Swtizerland almost in Austria, butis in a very lovely area. Its about 3.5 hours by train from Zurich, but only about 1.5- 2 hours from the St Moritz area. I don’t know if they allow weddings, but it may be worth asking. Take a look at http://www.muestair.ch/

Finally, the church mentioned by Cimbrone above, is a very lovely but large barouqe catherdral in Einsiedeln, this is about 45 minutes by train from Zurich, take a look at http://www.kloster-einsiedeln.ch/

I was quite underwhelmed by churches in Switzerland. I did not like St. Moritz at all....

OTOH, we saw a wonderful wedding in Zermatt. The church itself was nothing special but I can just imagine all the wedding pictures with the Matterhorn in the background

The only problem was that the bride was almost run over by Japanese tourist wanting to take their picture with her. I'm not kidding.

Thank you all for the helpful info. It does seem like most of the churches are kind of plain. But, using the names and links everyone gave me, I am finding some beautiful ones as well.

I am very grateful for all the information I received, everyone's remarks have been very helpful.

If you want to stay in the area around St. Moritz there are two lovely churches nearby: one in Ramosch, the other in Lavin. Both are quite famous. I personally also like the church in Ftan and it's picture perfect postcard setting. All three are in Unterengadin/Graubünden. They are likely all Protestant, but I am not certain.

What denomination? Makes a huge difference. Reformed/protestant churches are very plain by design - that is part of being reformed/protestant (meaning no longer catholic since Luther and Zwingli and Calvin etc.), so if you want ornate churches, stick with the catholic ones. But you can't just get married in any church, it's not like renting a function room at a conference center, you need to contact the local man of the cloth and arrange things that way.

Only civil wedding performed by a civil registrar is valid in Switzerland - religious ceremony has no legal meaning, and must be performed after the civil formalities are concluded. So you need to be already married in your country of origin or go through a civil marriage in Switzerland before having a religious ceremony. I don't know your nationality, but here is some info for US citizens wanting to be married in Switzerland: http://bern.usembassy.gov/marriage_in_switzerland.html

WallyKringen is correct, although I'm assuming you've thought of this.

I'm also guessing that a Catholic church will involve more religious bureaucracy than a Protestant one. I know that in the U.S. it does--pre-marriage counseling, proof of Baptism, pledge to raise kids as Catholic if one party isn't, etc...

The church in the tiny town of regensberg (about 30 minutes from Zurich) is a popular wedding-place.