The Roman Catholic Garnet Chapel (also: 'Capella Granata'), known in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

as 'Granatkapelle', is situated at the Penken saddle (German: the Penkenjoch) near the

Penken The Penken is a mountain area in the Ziller Valley located in the Austrian Tyrol. The Penken can be reached by modern cable car from the village of Mayrhofen Mayrhofen is a town in the Zillertal (Ziller river valley) in the Austrian state of Tyr ...

. This religious building can be found northeast of an artificial lake and forms part of the community of

Finkenberg Finkenberg is a Municipality (Austria), municipality in the Schwaz (district), Schwaz district in the Austrian state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol. Geography Finkenberg lies about 3 km southwest of Mayrhofen at the entrance to the Tuxer valley. Sights ...

in the

Zillertal The Ziller Valley (german: Zillertal) is a valley in Tyrol, Austria that is drained by the Ziller River. It is the widest valley south of the Inn Valley (german: Inntal) and lends its name to the Zillertal Alps, the strongly glaciated section of t ...

(

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

). This valley in the district of

Schwaz Schwaz () is a city in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is the administrative center of the Schwaz district. Schwaz is located in the lower Inn valley. Location Schwaz lies in the middle of the Lower Inn Valley at the foot of the Kellerjoch and ...

is in the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

(German ''Bundesland'') of

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

. The chapel belongs to the parish of Finkenberg, therefore to the Deanery of Fuegen-Jenbach and thus to the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Innsbruck The Roman Catholic Diocese of Innsbruck ( la, Dioecesis Oenipontanus) is a Latin Church suffragan diocese in the Ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan of Salzburg (in western Austria), covering the Bundesland (state) Tyrol. Its cathedral e ...

. The chapel is dedicated to Engelbert Kolland, a

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

of the

Franciscan Order , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

( OFM), who was beatified on 10 October 1926. Father Kolland was born in Ramsau, a small village in the Zillertal.

Location

The chapel is situated at approximately 2087

masl The Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) is a North American professional indoor soccer league. The MASL features teams playing coast-to-coast in the United States and Mexico. MASL is the highest level of arena soccer in North America. MASL players ...

, about 40 metres northeast of the artificial Penken lake (German: ''Speicherteich Penken''). The linear distance between chapel and village centre of Finkenberg amounts to approx 2,000 metres and about four kilometres to

Mayrhofen Mayrhofen is a town in the Zillertal (Ziller river valley) in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is located approximately an hour from the Tyrolean capital city of Innsbruck. Population Tourism The town offers a variety of summer and winter sports ...

, a town in the east, whereas it is about 6.5 kilometres to ''Ramsau in the Zillertal'', a village in the northeast.

History

In the years 2011 and 2012 plans to build the chapel were established, and on 10 July 2012 negotiations on how to realize the construction were held. This day was the exact date of death of the

beatified Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

Engelbert Kolland. On 17 June 2013 construction work started. After it was finished, various clerics of the Catholic Church then inaugurated the religious building on 22 September 2013, the very day that the beatified Engelbert Kolland had been

baptized Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

.''Im Land des Herrn'' (engl. ''In the land of the Lord''), No. 4/2020, p. 24.See also: Information board on site.Granatkapelle
Webside: zillertal.at (in German)

Building

The chapel was constructed in the name of the Brindlinger family and planned by

Mario Botta Mario Botta (born 1 April 1943) is a Swiss architect. Career Botta designed his first building, a two-family house at Morbio Superiore in Ticino, at age 16. He graduated from the Università Iuav di Venezia (1969). While the arrangements of spa ...

, a Swiss

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. In earlier times this family had earned a living by mining for

garnet Garnets () are a group of silicate minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. All species of garnets possess similar physical properties and crystal forms, but differ in chemical composition. The different s ...

s. Therefore, obviously the idea occurred to build this chapel in the form of a garnet. The religious building is a free-standing, two-storey wood

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...

in the form of a garnet that is open onto all sides. It is situated on a prominent rock and disposes of twelve identical

rhomboid Traditionally, in two-dimensional geometry, a rhomboid is a parallelogram in which adjacent sides are of unequal lengths and angles are non-right angled. A parallelogram with sides of equal length (equilateral) is a rhombus but not a rhomboid. ...

surfaces (

rhombic dodecahedron In geometry, the rhombic dodecahedron is a convex polyhedron with 12 congruent rhombic faces. It has 24 edges, and 14 vertices of 2 types. It is a Catalan solid, and the dual polyhedron of the cuboctahedron. Properties The rhombic dodecahedro ...

Weathering steel Weathering steel, often referred to by the genericised trademark COR-TEN steel and sometimes written without the hyphen as corten steel, is a group of steel alloys which were developed to eliminate the need for painting, and form a stable rus ...

is used on the outside to shield the wooden construction. The entrance as well as the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

and information on the life of Engelbert Kolland can be found on the

ground floor A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). T ...

. The chapel itself is located on the first floor. Its interior is lined with mainly regional larch wood. The glass dome produces interesting light effects on the ceiling. The

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

made of walnut wood and a portrait of the beatified Engelbert Kolland were created by Markus Thurner, born in 1970 in Maurach am Achensee (by the

Achen Lake Lake Achen (german: Achensee) is a lake north of Jenbach in Tyrol, Austria. It is the largest lake within the federal state, and has a maximal depth of 133 metres. Together with the Achen Valley it parts the Karwendel mountain range in the west f ...

). The portrait is a wooden mosaique which consists of five different regional types of wood from maple, cherry, apple and pear trees as well as walnut.''Im Land des Herrn'', Nr. 4/2020, p. 27.

Hiking route

The chapel can be reached on foot from the top station of the Finkenberg gondola lift, the Finkenberger Almbahnen, in about 10 minutes.

Literature

(only in German available) * Josef Brindlinger, Petrus Schüler OFM: ''…und manchmal stellt es sich sogar heraus, dahttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Garnet_Chapel&action=editss es ein Schatz ist'', in: ''Im Land des Herrn'', Franziskanische Zeitschrift für das Heilige Land, 74. Jahrgang, Heft 4, 2020, S. 23 ff. * Gottfried Egger: ''Zwischen Glocke und Minarett: Das Leben des Engelbert Kolland'', Salzburg 2010, Verlag Anton Pustet.

References

{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Tyrol (state) Roman Catholic chapels in Austria