Chur - Martinskirche

A church, dedicated Saint Martin of Tours, is known here since around 800. The church and a large part of the town was given to the bishop in 928 by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, (aka "Otto the Great"). Since 1220 it served the parish.

The church got severely damaged in 1464 by the town fire, that destroyed most of Chur. The rebuilding - in a late-Gothic style - was completed in 1535, when a little flat for a watchman got installed into the tower.

With the Swiss Reformation, triggered in Chur by Johannes Comander, a friend of Ulrich Zwingli, things changed. The Catholics were confined to a ghetto enclosed around the bishop's court beside the nearby cathedral. In 1529 the old altar was removed, the church treasury got sold and the remaining silver was melted down.

Originally the tower seen here had a smaller "helmet". The spire seen here was added in 1917. Today the tower is 82 metres high!