St. Peter's Anglican Church Château-d'Oex · Serving the English-speaking Community Since 1899

History of English Churches in Switzerland – Les Diablerets

The English church at Les Diablerets, seen among trees below the mountains
The English church at Les Diablerets, on a postcard published by Jullien frères of Geneva (J.J. 2276). Its undivided back dates the card before 1906.

History of English Church, Les Diablerets

The Grand-Hôtel built an Anglican chapel in 1881, the cost largely covered by a subscription raised among English tourists. The chaplaincy is older than the building: Les Diablerets was placed on the CCCS list in 1866, with the Revd G. Hale as its first chaplain in 1867.

How the chapel was staffed can be glimpsed in the visitors’ lists of the Riviera press. In June 1905 the guest register of the Grand Hôtel des Diablerets includes an English clergyman described as “English Chaplain for June” — a chaplain engaged for a single month of the season, lodged in the hotel like the guests he served. (The surname as printed is garbled and we do not reproduce it.) It was the common arrangement in the smaller resorts: no resident priest, but a rotation of visiting clergy taking a month apiece across the summer.

In 1893 the young société d’embellissement of Ormont-Dessus bought a clock from the town of Aigle and placed it in the chapel’s little belfry. Its maker was the celebrated craftsman Abram Dupertuis, killed at the combat of the Pont de la Tine in 1798. That clock has since disappeared; it was replaced by a new mechanism in 1964.

As the British clientele dwindled, the Grand-Hôtel decided at the end of the Second World War to convert the chapel into a utility building. The parish, unwilling to see it lose its original purpose, voted in 1945 to buy it; the deed of sale was concluded in 1946 for 6,000 francs. From 1947 the building served as a Reformed church, and from 1950 it was used for communion and baptism as well as for preaching.

Date of first Chaplaincy: 1866

Church dates: 1881-1947

Patron: Intercontinental Church Society (ICS)

Hotel: Grand Hotel

Current Status: Owned by Swiss Reform Church

Sources
Ormont-Dessous, Ormont-Dessus, La Vallée des Ormonts
Journal et liste des étrangers de Montreux, de Vevey, 17 June 1905, consulted at Scriptorium, Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire de Lausanne (scriptorium.ch)

Further Reading
Les Diablerets, Le Grand Hotel

Questions answered

When was the English church at Les Diablerets built?
The Grand-Hôtel built the chapel in 1881, the cost largely covered by a subscription raised among English tourists. The chaplaincy is older than the building: Les Diablerets was placed on the CCCS list in 1866, with the Revd G. Hale as its first chaplain in 1867.
What happened to the clock in the English church at Les Diablerets?
In 1893 the société d’embellissement of Ormont-Dessus bought a clock from the town of Aigle and placed it in the chapel’s belfry. Its maker was the craftsman Abram Dupertuis, killed at the combat of the Pont de la Tine in 1798. That clock has since disappeared and was replaced by a new mechanism in 1964.
Who owns the English church at Les Diablerets now?
The Reformed parish. The Grand-Hôtel decided at the end of the Second World War to convert the chapel into a utility building; the parish voted in 1945 to buy it and the deed of sale was concluded in 1946 for 6,000 francs. From 1947 the building served as a Reformed church.