STUCK A TOUR Excursion
9am–7pm
Stucco ceilings in St.Gallen, in Schloss Hahnberg near Arbon, in Zum Gelben Haus in Schaffhausen, and in the Gipsmuseum Schleitheim.
Questions and registration until May 22, 2009 should be addressed to Ueli Vogt, the individual responsible for the Material Archive in the Sitterwerk.
Places limited, contribution towards expenses ca. Fr. 50.–/person (incl. catering)
Detailed program
9am: meeting in the Sitterwerk
9:15am: guided tour through the exhibition «On Materials and Artworks» in the Material Archive
10am: stucco work in St. Gallen; guided tour with Niklaus Ledergerber, Monument Conservation of the City of St. Gallen
12pm: stucco work in Schloss Hahnberg, Berg; guided tour with Adolf Röösli and plasterwork specialist Bruno Lombardi
3pm: stucco work at «zum gelben Haus» Schaffhausen (www.zumgelbenhaus.ch); guided tour with Caro Stemmler, President of Heimatschutz SH
5pm: Gipsmuseum Schleitheim (www.museum-schleitheim.ch); guided tour with Uli Stamm
ca. 7pm: back in the Sitterwerk
Rococo and marble stucco work in the dining hall of the Abbot of St.Gallen
The dining room in the courtyard wing, the residence of the bishop in the St.Gallen Abbey District, is captivating as a result of a colorful marble stucco balustrade instead of paneling and the Rococo stucco on the ceiling. The dining hall for the Abbot and his guests was designed by Andreas Bentele, the Lindau stucco master, in 1752.
Stucco from three centuries in the Grosser Hahnberg
The Schloss Hahnberg above Arbon is characterized by an central tradition of enthusiasm for stucco ceilings. On the upper floors of the castle built in 1616, the first stucco ceilings were already created in 1770, and further ceilings were added in the 19th century. In the process of an extensive restoration, the Zurich architect Albert Froelich in 1920 installed stucco ceilings also in the entrance area and the representative central room on the first floor, which are designed in the at that time everyday wide-spread style of a historic seeming modernism with pastoral motifs.
The current owner Adolf Röösli has pursued his fascination with stucco in an entirely different manner. He purchased a ceiling created by Andreas Moosbrugger in 1758 from the Lindenhof in St.Gallen and summarily had it adapted to fit in the garden hall of his castle. The stucco specialist Bruno Lombardi explains to us on site how he elegantly solved the task of adapting the magnificent ceiling to the masses and proportions of the new location.
The result of the various owners passion for stucco over the centuries, a curious ensemble of different forms of ceiling stucco in lime mortar, also provides an interesting topic of discussion from the perspective of the preservation of historical monuments.
An Early Baroque, masterful early work in the Gelben Haus in Schaffhausen
An impressively compact Early Baroque concept for the design of stucco ceilings can be found in the so-called Gelben Haus in the center of the city of Schaffhausen. The owner Caro Stemmler has dedicatedly concerned himself in recent years with careful and professional restoration. After the more or less filigree design of the ceilings in the Hahnberg, the much more three-dimensionally designed ceiling—the first known work of the path-breaking stucco master Samuel Höscheller (1630-1713)—may seem somewhat heavy at first glance. The height of the rooms in the medieval house in the old city is comparatively low for a large ceremonial room so that one stands unexpectedly close to the ceiling from 1659. The high quality of the result of an extraordinary creative drive, however, soon and lastingly captivates the observer.
Plaster in its original form
Much further back—in 200-million-year-old rock formations of plaster—we penetrate at the end of this journey with stuccowork into lime and plaster. Some 100 years ago, plaster was extracted from a small mine in picturesque surroundings in Schleitheim near Schaffhausen. In the 1930s, the family of the former owner first opened a plaster museum here, which also gives visitors access to the actual veins of plaster located 300 meters deep within the mountain. For this stroll into the Earth's interior, construction helmets are distributed—not because of the danger of collapse but rather because people tend to hit their heads against the low adits. Uli Stamm, a grandson of the last operator of the mine, knows every detail on the subject of plaster, its extraction and use. (um)
Car trip to visit stucco ceilings and to the Schleitheim Gipsmuseum