We present the design and the performances of a vertical Josephson interferometer, which can be inserted within superconducting loops in order to obtain controllable Josephson devices. The most interesting feature of the vertical interferometer is that the Josephson current is precisely controlled by a small transversal magnetic field parallel to the superconducting loop plane and can be modulated from a maximum to zero with high precision. This system can be used to realize a switchable flux transformer to couple quantum bits when desired as well as to vary the critical current of a flux qubit in situ. In the latter application, the vertical interferometer is controlled by a magnetic field orthogonal to the one applied to tilt the qubit potential, thus minimizing the cross talking of the two magnetic fields.