History of English Churches in Switzerland – Glion
History of English Chapel, Glion
Glion was placed on the chaplaincy list of the Colonial and Continental Church Society in 1864. Paul Schniewind’s Anglicans in Switzerland, Past and Present — the standard account of the Anglican presence in the country, and the only source we hold for Glion — names the Revd J. E. A. Fenwick as chaplain in 1866.
The chapel itself was built on land placed at the disposal of the congregation by the Hotel Victoria. Schniewind dates the building to 1888–89; the contemporary press puts its opening a little earlier. Describing the new church at Clarens in April 1888, the Feuille d’avis de Montreux surveyed the English churches of the district and noted in passing that “Glion a inauguré une chapelle anglaise l’année passée” — Glion inaugurated an English chapel last year, which is 1887. The two need not conflict if the building was finished and fitted out over more than one season, but the chapel was evidently in use by 1887.
It was never an exclusively Anglican building: Schniewind records that it was used jointly with the Free Church of Montreux, and that Glion had no resident priest of its own — the chaplain from Vevey came up to serve it. That was the usual arrangement in the smaller Alpine resorts, where a single season of English visitors could not support a chaplaincy on its own. A Montreux services column of February 1901 shows the pattern in practice: the Free Church listed a Sunday service at Glion, while the English of the district were directed down the hill to Christ Church at Clarens and St John’s at Territet.
The end of the chapel
The chapel’s end is recorded in the minutes of the Montreux-Planches communal council. At the sitting reported on 2 December 1959, a councillor asked that “l’ancienne chapelle anglaise de Glion qui est désaffectée” — the old English chapel, now disused — be kept locked. The municipal officer replied that, by agreement with the Hôtel Victoria, “la chapelle anglaise sera démolie au printemps prochain” and that a pavement was planned in its place.
So the chapel came down in the spring of 1960, seventy-odd years after it went up, and the ground it stood on became a footpath.
Date of first Chaplaincy: 1864
Church dates: Inaugurated by 1887 (Schniewind gives 1888–89); demolished spring 1960
Patron: Intercontinental Church Society (ICS)
Hotel: Hotel Victoria
Current Status: Demolished
Sources
Anglicans in Switzerland, Past and Present, Paul Schniewind (p. 105)
Victoria Hotel
Feuille d’avis de Montreux, 5 April 1888 and 1 February 1901
Journal de Montreux, 2 December 1959 (Montreux-Planches communal council)
Digitised newspapers consulted at Scriptorium, Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire de Lausanne (scriptorium.ch)
Further Reading
Hotel Victoria, Notre Histoire (French)
Questions answered
- Was there an English chapel at Glion?
- Yes. Glion was placed on the chaplaincy list of the Colonial and Continental Church Society in 1864, and a chapel was built on land placed at the disposal of the congregation by the Hotel Victoria. Schniewind dates the building to 1888–89; the Feuille d'avis de Montreux, writing in April 1888, records that "Glion a inauguré une chapelle anglaise l'année passée" — that is, in 1887. It was demolished in the spring of 1960.
- When was the English chapel at Glion demolished?
- In the spring of 1960. The Montreux-Planches communal council was told at its sitting of 2 December 1959 that the chapel was disused, and the municipal officer replied that by agreement with the Hôtel Victoria "la chapelle anglaise sera démolie au printemps prochain" — it would be demolished the following spring — and that a pavement was planned in its place.
- Did Glion have its own Anglican chaplain?
- No. Paul Schniewind records that the chapel was used jointly with the Free Church of Montreux and that the chaplain from Vevey came up to serve Glion — the usual arrangement in smaller Alpine resorts, where a single season of English visitors could not support a chaplaincy on its own.