The English Church in Zermatt
27 February 2024
Nothing in the world could induce the inhabitants of the Alps to go up a mountain as a leisure activity, let alone climb peaks. For the peasantry, mountains meant mostly danger from nature, demons and fantasy creatures until the 18th century.
However, writers, scientists and what we today call alpinists began to take an interest in mountains and their flora and fauna in the late 18th century. The first hikers and mountaineers presented themselves.
Decades before the English period of mountain climbers (around 1850), two French residents from Chamonix climbed Mont Blanc in 1786, encouraged by the Swiss scientist Horace-Bénédicte de Saussure (1740-1799).
Chamonix, Horace-Bénédicte de Saussure
However, there was no tourist boom, although this climb was the day’s talk. The French Revolution and subsequent wars until 1815 halted further development.
The fact is that Britons discovered Switzerland and the Alps around 1850. The flora and fauna of the Alps and the beauty of nature and healthy air (not unimportant in Industrial Revolution England) unleashed a veritable trend, especially in the Swiss Alps.
This development was partly due to the positive coverage in (English) media, politics and business about that exceptional republic with sovereign cantons in the middle of Europe. In short, Switzerland was en vogue, not only for British tourists but also for political refugees from European monarchies on the continent.
The Matterhorn
Zermatt was the cradle for mountaineers. The English Gentleman usually took his family along, too. They expected comfort, and local entrepreneurs, hoteliers, transport operators (until the advent of the train and later cars with the carriage), restaurants, and cultural events met the need.
A critical need was a location for services of the English (Anglican) Church. Zermatt was Catholic, and there was no Protestant church. Church services were initially held in Monte Rosa (owner Alexander Seiler), Mont Cervin (owner Joseph Clementz) and Hotel des Alpes.
Zermatt, Alexander Seiler (1819-1891) and Katharina Seiler (1834-1895) monument
With financial and political support from Seiler and Clementz, English tourists began fundraising for an Anglican church in early 1865. Then, however, disaster struck. The first successful ascent of the Matterhorn on July 14 1865, ended with the deaths of four of the seven mountaineers. Among the victims was alpinist-dominee Charles Hudson (1828-1865). Mountaineering, Zermatt and the Matterhorn fell out of favour for several years.
Time heals (many) wounds, and the Baedeker (a leading ‘Lonely Planet’) again praised them in 1868. Moreover, American tourists had also found their way to Zermatt.
The first church service in the new Anglican church took place on June 29 1870. The Bishop of Dover, Edward Parry (1830-1890), consecrated the church on August 6, 1871. The unfortunate Charles Hudson found his final resting place under the church’s altar, and other crashed climbers were given a place around the church.
Zermatt was again the most important place for mountaineers, and the church was the ‘parish church of the (British) Alpine Club’, founded in 1857. The prestige was so great that the British Alpine Club commemorated its centenary in Zermatt and the English church!
After 1870, however, more and more tourists came because of motives other than climbing. Other summer and winter sports developed. Winston Churchill (1874-1961) visited Zermatt in 1894. Although he is known, among other things, for saying ‘no sports’, he was indeed a sportsman in his younger years. According to tradition, he even climbed Monte Rosa (4634 m).
These times are long gone, and after 1945, the composition of tourists and their pursuits also changed. However, the Anglican church is still an important center for (English-speaking) tourists and Protestant services.
(Source and further information: Cicely Williams, A Church in the Alps, Zermatt 1970, 6th edition, in 2006; www.zermatt.ch).
