Biel, CH

City Church

The city church of Biel is a sacred building of the reformed congregation. It was first mentioned in 1228. The church was originally dedicated to St. Benedict of Nursia and belonged to the diocese of Lausanne until the Reformation in 1528. The present church was built between 1451 and 1470 in the late Gothic style by the master craftsman Wenzlin. The remains of the walls of the earlier Romanesque and Gothic buildings, which were partially demolished or bricked up during the construction of the church, have been preserved to the present day.

About this building

Key Features

  • Architecture
  • Monuments

Visitors information

  • Bus stop within 100m
  • Parking within 250m
  • Café within 500m

Other nearby buildings

Biel Synagogue

The synagogue in Biel was built in 1884 in the Moorish style. The synagogue was necessary for the growing Jewish community of Alsatian origin, attracted by the city's watchmaking industry. The synagogue was restored in the 1990s.

Wikimedia Commons/Tankstellenidau

St. Mary's Church

St. Mary's Church is the oldest of the three Roman Catholic parish churches in Biel. On the outside, the church adopts neo-Gothic forms; inside, it is one of the few Swiss churches in the expressionist style. The church building consists of an upper church, built by the architect Adolf Gaudy in 1927-1929, and a crypt, formed by the former church, built in 1867-1870 by the architect Wilhelm Keller.

Wikimedia Commons/Userhelp.ch

Solothurn Cathedral

The Cathedral of St. Ursus is an early Classicist church built between 1762 and 1773 by Gaetano Matteo Pisoni and Paolo Antonio Pisoni on a site where two previous buildings had probably stood since the early Middle Ages. The interior is decorated with stuccoes by Francesco Pozzi. The old church, a Gothic building well attested by sources and iconography, was very dilapidated in the mid-18th century. It was demolished in 1761-1768.

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