History of English Churches in Switzerland – Arolla
History of St George’s, Arolla
Arolla sits at the head of the Val d’Hérens, and its English chapel is the clearest example in these pages of how the Alpine chaplaincies actually worked: the congregation was a hotel’s guest list, and the chapel was built by the hotelier who wanted them. It is also the one place where a disagreement about dates could be settled — not from church records, which are thin, but from the newspapers, which reported a death.
A salon in the Hôtel Collon
Arolla was placed on the chaplaincy list of the Colonial and Continental Church Society in 1877. At first there was no building: the proprietor of the Hôtel Collon, M. Jean Auzevin, placed a salon in his hotel at the disposal of the services.
That arrangement — a room in a hotel, put at the disposal of a visiting chaplain for the season — was the normal shape of Anglican worship in the high valleys before anyone built anything, and at Arolla it lasted a generation.
On 22 August 1901 an agreement was made between Auzevin and the CCCS in which the hotel owner undertook to build a church for the English visitors. The church opened on 10 July 1903, and was consecrated on 21 August the following year by Bishop Edward Marsden. It was named St George’s.
The date, and how we know it
Several tourism and local-history accounts date the chapel at Arolla to 1908 rather than 1903, and the disagreement had been left open in our research notes. The newspapers close it.
On 17 August 1904 La liberté carried a short paragraph under Accidents de montagne, reporting from Evolène that an Englishman had been killed in the neighbourhood of Arolla: the body bore a head wound and a fractured leg, and “le cadavre a été transporté à Arolla et déposé dans la chapelle anglaise” — the body was taken to Arolla and laid in the English chapel.
A chapel that received a body in August 1904 was not built in 1908. The press therefore supports Schniewind’s chronology: services in the hotel salon from the 1870s, a building from 1903.
Dr Gurney
The man laid in the chapel deserves his name on this page. He was, as the papers have him, the Revd Dr Gurney, of Roseworth near Newcastle, and a professor at the scientific college in that city; the Italian-language La Rezia described him as director of the scientific gymnasium at Newcastle. He was over sixty.
La Suisse libérale of 17 August 1904 gives the fullest account. He had been at Arolla with his two daughters for only a few days. On the Saturday morning he left the hotel without saying where he was going. When he had not returned by the evening a column of guides went out to look for him; on the Sunday more than seventy people staying at the hotel set out too, in different directions. Only on the Monday morning did word come that his body had been found, between les Roussettes and the Mont Dolin, by inhabitants of the valley. He had fallen more than thirty metres, and death must have been instantaneous.
The story was carried across Switzerland in three languages inside a week — Der Bund, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the Briger Anzeiger, the Journal et feuille d’avis du Valais, La Rezia and a dozen others. It is a reminder of what these chaplaincies were partly for. The English came to the Alps to climb, some of them died climbing, and the chapel built for their holidays was where their bodies were brought.
By Schniewind’s dating, Dr Gurney lay in St George’s four days before the bishop consecrated it.
Afterwards
Schniewind records that in 1972 the Swiss Reformed Church was leasing St George’s. Beyond that we have found nothing that meets the standard of evidence used for these pages, and this account does not describe the building’s present-day use.
This account rests on Schniewind (1992) and on Swiss newspapers of 1902 and 1904. It does not describe the chapel’s present-day use.
Date of first Chaplaincy: 1877 (Colonial and Continental Church Society)
Church dates: Agreement with the hotel owner 22 August 1901; opened 10 July 1903; consecrated 21 August 1904 by Bishop Edward Marsden
Patron: St George
Hotel: Hôtel Collon, proprietor M. Jean Auzevin, who built the church
Current Status: Leased by the Swiss Reformed Church as at 1972; its position since is not established here
Sources
Paul Schniewind, Anglicans in Switzerland, Past and Present (pp. 107–108)
La liberté, 17 August 1904, “Faits divers — Accidents de montagne” (persistent link)
La Suisse libérale, 17 August 1904, “Accident de montagne” (persistent link)
FAN — L’express, 16 August 1904; La Rezia, 20 August 1904 — in the Swiss digitised press collection, e-newspaperarchives.ch
Questions answered
- Who built the English church at Arolla?
- The hotelier. Arolla went on the Colonial and Continental Church Society's chaplaincy list in 1877, and the proprietor of the Hôtel Collon, M. Jean Auzevin, put a salon in his hotel at the disposal of the services. On 22 August 1901 Auzevin and the CCCS made an agreement under which the hotel owner undertook to build a church for the English visitors — an arrangement repeated across the Alps, where the congregation was the hotel's clientele and the chapel was part of the hotel's offer.
- When was St George's, Arolla, built — 1903 or 1908?
- 1903. Schniewind records the church as opened on 10 July 1903 and consecrated on 21 August the following year by Bishop Edward Marsden. Several tourism and local-history sources instead date the chapel to 1908, but contemporary newspapers settle it: on 17 August 1904 La liberté reported a body being taken to Arolla and laid "dans la chapelle anglaise", so a standing English chapel existed there in the summer of 1904. A chapel cannot have been built in 1908 and used in 1904.
- Who was the clergyman who died at Arolla in 1904?
- The papers call him the Revd Dr Gurney, of Roseworth near Newcastle, and a professor at the scientific college there. La Suisse libérale of 17 August 1904 reported that he had been staying at Arolla with his two daughters for only a few days when, on the Saturday morning, he left the hotel without saying where he was going. Guides searched that evening; on the Sunday more than seventy other hotel guests set out in different directions; on the Monday morning news came that his body had been found between les Roussettes and the Mont Dolin by people from the valley, after a fall of more than thirty metres.
- What happened to St George's, Arolla?
- Schniewind records that in 1972 the Swiss Reformed Church was leasing St George's. We have not been able to establish its position since then from sources meeting our evidence standard, and this account does not describe its present-day use.