Stadtkirche St. Martin

Stadtkirche St. Martin stands on Kirchplatz in the centre of Rheinfelden’s old town, in Switzerland’s Aargau canton. This Christian Catholic church rises as a three-aisled Gothic basilica, with white plaster, grey painted bands, arched openings, and a Baroque porch.

The first church here was a simple eleventh-century rectangle, while the present structure developed during the later fourteenth century. From 1228 to 1870, the building housed a collegiate chapter whose canons shaped religious and educational life in Rheinfelden. Its north tower preserves parts from around 1200, later additions, and a 1629 hood with four clock gables. The congregation joined the Christian Catholic movement in 1873, and Switzerland’s first Christian Catholic bishop was consecrated here in 1876.

Inside, Corinthian pilasters, stucco vaults, Rocaille ornament, and six coats of arms frame the late Baroque atmosphere. The high altar from 1606 combines German Gothic and Italian Renaissance forms, with Saint Martin on horseback above the Adoration of the Shepherds. Two carved rows of choir stalls stand beside the rectangular choir organ built in 1770.