Who designed the English church at Mürren?

George Edmund Street, the London architect famous for his Gothic Revival churches. He had visited Mürren in 1875, so he knew the place at first hand, and his design followed the local building tradition of stone and wood rather than importing an English idiom. The church was finished in 1878, built by H. Ufer of Interlaken, and cost £1,500.

Why does the English church at Mürren have no patron saint?

Nobody knows. St Ursula's Church Magazine records simply that for unknown reasons no patron saint was ever named, and that it has always been known as "the English Church" — which is why it is sometimes called the church without a saint.

What is the connection between Mürren and alpine skiing?

Alpine skiing was effectively invented there. British visitors brought out by Sir Henry Lunn's Public School Alpine Sports Club left the hotel ice rinks for cross-country skis, then learned to slide downhill and turn on the steep slopes above the village. The local guides formed the Skiklub Mürren in 1912. Sir Arnold Lunn organised the first slalom race at Mürren in 1922, founded the Kandahar Ski Club in 1924, and brought the first Alpine World Ski Championships there in 1931.

History of the English Church, Mürren - Anglican Churches in Switzerland

Q: Were British soldiers interned at Mürren in the First World War?

Yes. Schniewind records that four hundred wounded British prisoners of war were interned at Mürren by the Swiss government, and that Mürren, with Interlaken and Grindelwald, was one of the principal places of the "Région anglaise" within the internment organisation — the same arrangement that brought internees to Château-d'Œx. The SPG appointed a Mr Campbell-Bell as chaplain, and the communicants' kneeler in the church was made by the prisoners.

Q: What happened to the English church at Mürren?

By the end of the 1970s its upkeep had become too costly and it needed renovation, so in 1982 the USPG sold it to the Swiss Reformed Church. It was carefully restored and is now part of the Kirchgemeinde Lauterbrunnen, with a special clause in the contract allowing English visitors to go on using it.

History of the English Church, Mürren

The English church at Mürren has never had a patron saint. St Ursula’s Church Magazine, which told its story in 2017, could find no reason for it: none was ever named, and the building has always simply been “the English Church”. It is otherwise one of the most consequential of the Alpine chapels — designed by one of the great Victorian architects, filled with wounded prisoners of war in 1916, and standing a few hundred yards from where alpine skiing was invented.

The visitors arrive

International travellers had found the Lauterbrunnen valley and Mürren, with its view of the mountains grouped around the Jungfrau, long before the turn of the century. The first hotel went up in 1857 and more hotels and guesthouses followed in the 1870s. Mürren succeeded despite being hard to reach: visitors faced a two- or three-hour climb from the valley floor unless they preferred to ride a horse or be carried up in a chair.

English visitors of the upper middle class came in large numbers, with the means to travel abroad that the prospering British economy gave them. Staying several weeks, they expected Anglican services as a matter of course, and from 1872 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel provided them — the year Schniewind records Mürren first being placed on the SPG list.

Street’s church

A chapel was soon discussed. Money was collected in England, and the owner of one of the hotels made a piece of land available. The design was given to George Edmund Street, the London architect famous for his Gothic Revival churches. Street had visited Mürren in 1875, so he had first-hand knowledge of the place, and what he proposed followed the local building tradition of stone and wood rather than importing an English idiom wholesale.

The church was erected in 1878 by H. Ufer of Interlaken to Street’s plans, at a cost of £1,500, and the SPG agreed to take charge of it and provide services through the summer. The Society also resolved that it “be prepared to allow the villagers of Mürren, should they desire it, to use the Church at certain times, under such conditions as the Society may enjoin”.

An early postcard published by R. Gabler of Interlaken, probably around 1900, shows it captioned Mürren — Englische Kirche, Eiger, Mönch und Jungfrau: a steep shingled roof and a small spire, with the Jungfrau massif behind.

The war, and a marriage

The opening of the funicular and railway connection from Lauterbrunnen in 1891 brought a renewed boom. The winter season came comparatively late to Mürren, delayed for years by a fight between the hoteliers and the railway owners, but when it finally arrived in 1910–11 it was an immediate success.

Then the First World War brought the tourist business to a complete standstill — and brought a different kind of British visitor. Four hundred wounded British prisoners of war were interned at Mürren by the Swiss government. With Interlaken and Grindelwald, Mürren was one of the principal places of the “Région anglaise” within the internment organisation: the same humanitarian arrangement that brought interned soldiers to Château-d’Œx, and the reason both villages have a British story from those years. Because the hotels stood empty, the internees also kept the local economy alive. The SPG appointed a Mr Campbell-Bell to act as chaplain, and the communicants’ kneeler in the church was made by the prisoners.

One of the wounded men was Edward Varley. In 1917 he met and married Anna Huggler, who ran her family’s sports and souvenir shop catering to Mürren’s international visitors; the Hugglers came from Brienz and Brienzwiler, villages known for woodcarving. He was a Roman Catholic and her family were Protestant — “quite a hurdle in those days” — and there is no record of the marriage in the English church, so it must have taken place in the registry office at Lauterbrunnen or Interlaken. When the war ended Edward stayed in Mürren, and the two of them ran the shop together.

Where alpine skiing began

Mürren recovered quickly after the war, largely because of what its British visitors had started doing on its slopes. Sir Henry Lunn’s Public School Alpine Sports Club had been bringing out groups of affluent customers, and at one point five of the village’s ten hotels were fully booked with an elite segment of British society. Adventurous by temperament, they abandoned the hotel ice rinks for skis — at first exploring the surroundings in the cross-country or Nordic style, then, on the steep slopes, learning to slide downhill and to make turns. Alpine skiing was born. The local mountain guides saw the opportunity, formed the Skiklub Mürren in 1912, and offered themselves as ski guides and instructors.

It was Henry Lunn’s son, Sir Arnold Lunn, who made it a sport. He organised the first slalom race at Mürren in 1922, founded the Kandahar Ski Club there in 1924 to promote downhill racing, and campaigned for alpine skiing’s inclusion in the Winter Olympics — achieved at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936. He initiated the first Alpine World Ski Championships, held at Mürren in 1931 and again in 1935, with downhill and slalom races for both men and women.

Lunn’s affection for the place is on record in a book about another of these churches. Writing the foreword to Cicely Williams’s Zermatt Saga — Williams being the chronicler of St Peter’s, Zermatt — he acknowledged the beauty of the Matterhorn region and then added: “the Bernese Oberland is for me what Zermatt is for Mrs Williams.”

Between the wars and after

Between the wars the chaplaincy opened for both the summer and the winter seasons. After the Hotel des Alpes passed to Sir Henry Lunn’s widow, Lady Mabel Lunn, the SPG nominated the summer chaplains and Lunn the winter ones. A post-war SPG report was blunt about its standing: “The chaplaincy at Mürren is one of the most important, especially in winter.”

The church was served for decades by British holiday locums, mostly in the winter season. One of them was George Reindorp, at the time Bishop of Guildford, who had a long association with Mürren through the Kandahar Ski Club and went out regularly for Christmas. In January 1970 he married two long-standing members of St Ursula’s, Berne — Chloë Varley, granddaughter of Edward and Anna, and Beat Hodler, whose grandparents had bought a chalet in the village in 1927. Replying to the wedding invitation, Reindorp wrote that his family were of the opinion that no wedding reception since the world began had been held so near to heaven.

By the end of the 1970s the upkeep of the building had become too costly and renovations were needed. In 1982 the USPG, as the Society had become, sold the church to the Swiss Reformed Church. It was carefully restored and is now part of the Kirchgemeinde Lauterbrunnen — with a special clause in the contract allowing English visitors to go on using it. Cooperation with the Swiss pastor at Lauterbrunnen has been good, and Mürren has continued as an Anglican winter chaplaincy.

This account rests on sources published up to 2017 and does not describe the church’s present-day life.

Date of first Chaplaincy: 1872 (Society for the Propagation of the Gospel)

Church dates: Built 1878; sold to the Swiss Reformed Church 1982

Patron: Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, later the USPG

Hotel: Hotel des Alpes, latterly under Lady Mabel Lunn

Current Status: Part of the Kirchgemeinde Lauterbrunnen; English visitors retain the right of use by contract

Sources

“Mürren and the Church without a Saint”, St Ursula’s Church Magazine (Berne), December 2017 – January 2018, pp. 8–11

Paul Schniewind, Anglicans in Switzerland, Past and Present (pp. 90–92)