CHUR, Diocese of. - City of Switzerland (Latin Curia Rhaetorum, Romansh Cuera, French Coire, German Chur), capital of the Canton of Graubünden. Of ancient origin, it was already an important road junction in Roman times. Seat of a very ancient bishopric, whose first bishop, according to legend, would have been St. Lucius (1st century AD). In 450, the bishop of Chur took part in the Council of Milan. From the 5th century onward some bishops, from the family of the Vittoridi, they also governed the fortunes of the country as temporal authorities: the last of them, Tello, d. in 773, left his possessions by testament to the abbey of Disentis. Charlemagne, however, in 805 wished to separate temporal power from spiritual power. In 843, the diocese of C. was detached from the archbishopric of Milan and joined to that of Mainz, on which it depended until 1804.
Following the donations of the Ottonians, the bishop became lord of a large part of the country, and, from 1170 to 1805, was also prince of the empire. The bishop's temporal rights were abolished with the articles of Ilanz of 1524-1526, the period in which the Reformation was introduced into the country, but the bishop continued to exercise the right of minting coin until 1767, and only in 1798 did all his temporal power come to an end completely. Today the jurisdiction of the diocese extends over the Catholics of the Cantons of Graubünden, Uri, Unterwalden lower and upper, Schwyz, Glarus, Zurich, and of the principality of Liechtenstein. The territory of the diocese, which measures 12,455 sq km, comprises, out of a total population of 899,460 inhabitants, 327,345 faithful, divided into 257 parishes, in which 563 diocesan priests and 475 religious work (1948).
Among its monuments are remembered the Cathedral, built in the years 1179-1282, in place of an ancient church of the 14th century; in it is preserved the tomb of bishop Ortlieb de Brandis (15th century), and a most beautiful high altar in carved wood, the work of Jacob Russ of Ravensburg (1491).
Also noteworthy is the church of St. Martin, with traces of the primitive building of the 9th century, erected in Gothic style in 1491, currently used for Protestant worship. Among the abbeys existing in its diocese, besides those of Einsiedeln (v.) and Engelberg (v.), are remembered the Premonstratensian one of St. Lucius (1040) suppressed in 1806, and the other Benedictine one of Disentis founded by Sigisbert in 614, originally dedicated to the Madonna and to Sts. Martin and Peter, then to Sts. Placid and Sigisbert, erected in 1617 as a Swiss congregation.
Bibliography8 works
Mariano Baffi