September 2011

Pope Benedict XVI in Freiburg, 2011

Pope Benedict XVI visited the city of Freiburg on September 24 and 25, 2011 to mark the end of his tour of Germany. Under the motto "Wherever God is, there is a future", the head of the Catholic Church held two open-air masses for around 100,000 believers.

NUSSLI was tasked with the construction of a 2,200 square meters, roofed altar island for this large-scale event on the grounds of the Freiburg City Airport. The structure included an elevator from the Pope's sacristy directly to the main stage. The highly complex roof construction posed a particular challenge for the installers, as the design included a 16 meters overhang. NUSSLI developed an entirely new roof girder for this specific project, which will be utilized as a bridge system for spans up to 30 meters in future projects. The 1,250 square meters of membrane covering for the altar island was recycled in a very special way at the end of the event: The material was used for the manufacture of fabric bags, which represented a memento of particular value for devout catholics.

Visit of Pope, Freiburg, september 2011

Visit of Pope, Freiburg, september 2011

Roofed altar island , Visit of Pope, Freiburg, september 2011

Roofed altar island , Visit of Pope, Freiburg, september 2011

Roof, altar island, Visit of Pope, Freiburg, september 2011

Roof, altar island, Visit of Pope, Freiburg, september 2011