College Church

The College Church takes its name from the school Kollegium Spiritus Sanctus Brig. The college comprises the five-year grammar school and the four-year sports school. Since its inauguration in 1687, the Kollegium church has served the students of the Collge as a place of reflection and prayer. All the attention of the Jesuits who ran the school at that time was devoted to the religious education of the students and also of the population of Brig. After the final expulsion of the Jesuits in 1848, priests from the diocese of Sion took over as teachers and pastors at the college. A church rector was appointed for the church, whose task it was and still is today to take care of the church entrusted to him.

The construction of the college church was carried out according to the plans of Mathäus Koller from Augsburg and the Jesuit brother Heinrich Mayer. It was built by the Prismeller brothers Bodmer, who simplified the plans a little. The collegiate church with its rectangular wall construction and the indented choir with triple end is a representative of the type of the German Jesuit church. In contrast to the choir with its fan vault, the nave is barrel-vaulted. The outer facade is structured by blind niches with round-arched windows. The choir flank tower has an octagonal bell storey and an onion dome.