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Villages / Valais / Brig district / Naters Ossuary

Naters Ossuary

Site Canton of Valais · District: Brig · Uninhabited site (municipality of Naters)
Part of the municipality of Naters
Origin of the name Founding Historical timeline Must-see historical sites Sources and references Nearby villages

Origin of the name Naters Ossuary

The site bears the German name «Beinhaus», the house of bones, rendered in French as «ossuaire».[1]

Founding of Naters Ossuary

The ossuary stands in Naters, on the Beinhausweg. It was built in 1513-1514 by the master builder Ulrich Ruffiner, whose mark appears above the chapel portal, at the behest of the canon and parish priest Christian Harenden. The late Gothic building has two storeys under a gabled roof: below, a half-sunken crypt chapel where the skulls are stacked, above, a chapel dedicated to St Anne, reached by an outside staircase.[1][2]

History of Naters Ossuary

12th century. Date of the Romanesque head of the crucifix kept in the ossuary.[1]

1513-1514. Ulrich Ruffiner builds the ossuary for the canon and parish priest Christian Harenden. Inscriptions and graffiti from that time survive on the walls.[1][2]

early 18th century. The upper chapel receives a hipped wooden ceiling with stencilled panels.[1]

2nd half of the 18th century. Anton Sigristen makes the Crucifixion group and the altar of St Anne and Mary.[1]

1930. Lambert Schmithausen carves the new body of the crucifix, dressed in a sleeved tunic.[1]

1985. During the renovation, two 15th-century sculptures and more recent devotional objects are found.[1]

Historic sites in Naters Ossuary

Wall of skulls. In the half-sunken lower chapel, more than 30'000 skulls are stacked into a wall. A prayer niche opens under the staircase, through a round-arched window.[1][2]

St Anne's chapel. Upper chapel, with a wooden ceiling of the early 18th century and an altar of St Anne and Mary by Anton Sigristen.[1]

Cultural property of national importance. Like the church of St Maurice in Naters, the ossuary is among the A objects (national importance) of the Swiss inventory of cultural property.[3]

Sources

  1. Office fédéral de la protection de la population (OFPP), Inventaire PBC, fiche KGS 06888 « Beinhaus » (texte de la Société d'histoire de l'art en Suisse)
  2. Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz, « Naters » (Anton Riva, version du 04.01.2017)
  3. Office fédéral de la protection de la population (OFPP), Inventaire PBC, liste cantonale du Valais (objets A et B, état au 1.1.2026)
  4. geo.admin.ch, recherche de lieux (coordonnées du village de Naters)

Other villages near Naters Ossuary

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