Saint Benedict Chapel

In 1984 an avalanche destroyed the baroque chapel in front of the village of Sogn
Benedetg (St. Benedict). A recently built parking lot had acted like a ramp pushing the snow from the avalanche up against the chapel.

The new site on the original path to the Alp above the small village is protected from
avalanches by a forest. The new wooden chapel, faced with larch wood shingles, was inaugurated in 1988.

The village authorities sent us the building permit with the comment “senza perschuasiun” (without conviction). Yet the abbot and monks of the Disentis Monastery and the then village priest Bearth wanted to build something new and contemporary for future generations.

Photos by Helene Binet
Text: Peter Zumthor
Courtesy of The Pritzker Architecture Prize