4. Inside: overview |
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Archaeological investigations showed two smaller previous buildings (around 800 and slightly larger around 1100). Today's church, with its oldest components, dates from around 1200, so it is around 800 years old. Like the buildings in the entire Basel region, this church was also badly damaged in the Basel earthquake of 1356 and then rebuilt.
The antechoir with the Romanesque cubic capitals remained and is therefore the oldest part (around 1200). After the earthquake, the altar house (now rectangular) and the nave were rebuilt under the fiefdom bearer Konrad Münch-Löwenberg, and then the church was decorated with paintings.
After the church came under the control of St. Peter's Monastery in Basel in the second half of the 15th century, it had the entire church repainted in 1507. The paintings of the churches in the Middle Ages always followed the same program: Whenever possible, a church was oriented to the east. The Passion story was depicted on the (dark) north side, the life of Mary on the (light) south side and the Last Judgment on the west side (the setting of the sun). This also applies to Muttenz.
After the Reformation of 1529, however, all paintings were whitewashed and Bible verses were written on the wall.
The increase in population meant that a gallery was added, and instead of one window, two windows were now broken out on the north and south walls, because the paintings were not visible, regardless of their destruction.
During a renovation in 1880, the old paintings were rediscovered and the famous Muttenz artist Karl Jauslin had tracings and watercolors made from all of the paintings. After that they were whitewashed again, with the exception of the Last Judgment on the west wall. With the renovation from 1973-75, the paintings were made visible again.