Old building (Chur)
The old building is a building in the Grisons canton capital Chur in the northwest of the old town.
history
Erected as a patrician house on behalf of Envoyé Peter von Salis-Soglio (usually called Peter von Salis), the building now serves as the seat of the cantonal and district courts of Plessur . The architect was David Morf , who supervised the construction work from summer 1727 to September 1730. The years of construction are given differently and, depending on the source, are between 1727 and 1729, 1730 or 1731. It can be assumed that at least the main building was finished when the architect left, because before July 1727 he received a fee for plan drawings. In addition to David Morf, Albert Willi (Villi) and a Hartmann à Plata also appear as master builders in the accounting books. The building is owned by Graubündner Kantonalbank. It has been the seat of the Cantonal Court of Graubünden for decades.
The client was naturalized in Chur in 1729, and his father-in-law Hercules von Salis-Soglio, who was one of the wealthy citizens of Graubünden at the time, died in the same year. Before that he was an officer in France at a young age and then an envoy in Holland and England, which earned him the title of Envoyé. It is therefore not surprising that Peter von Salis was not only able to raise the high purchase sum of 18,000 guilders for citizenship, but also around 15,000 guilders for building a house. If one estimates his fortune at that time at one million guilders.
Location and previous building
The building was constructed in the little built-up area around the former Dominican monastery of St. Nicolai . Nevertheless, entire assemblies had to be broken off. The most famous building on the building site was the “Staubiger Hut” or “Zum Staubigen Hüetli” restaurant , which had existed since the late Middle Ages and into the 17th century, and which became famous through the murder of Jörg Jenatsch .
At that time, the building was built on a side street through which the open Untertorer Mühlbach still ran at the time of construction. Today this brook is covered and the Poststrasse is one of the main axes of the city.
Structure and equipment
The baroque house is rich in stucco and paintings. Typical of a Chur old town building are the frames of the windows, which are made of gray-colored Scalära stone.
The adjoining Fontanapark , which was also designed on behalf of Peter von Salis, originally belonged to the building. The whole property was then surrounded by a wall.
Through the mediation of Domenico Giuseppe Lavizzari, the important Veltlin painter Piedro Ligari could be won over for the paintings . He stayed in Chur in summer and autumn from 1728 to 1731. In addition to the ceiling paintings, he also created some canvases for the building.
Several names are mentioned as plasterers, on the other hand there is also the indication "five plasterers". A Francesco Solari , a Johannes Streit (possibly Streich) and a Johannes Schmid ("Johanes Smit") are mentioned as plasterers . The gilders are Bartrolome , Galett (possibly a person named Bartrolome Galett) and Francesco Gualtieri with assistant. The stucco work is stylistically attributed to the Regency , i.e. the transition phase between the heavy baroque style of Louis XIV and the light Rococo or Louis XVI style. Six rooms on the ground floor are stuccoed, almost all of them on the upper floor. The plastic stucco can be found in the stairwell.
The so-called Chinese room is particularly worth mentioning. The painted wallpaper in the large paneling was created by an unknown artist, who based his choice of motifs on Chinese art. The smaller fillings have been pasted with figurative paper applications.
New building
The gray house on the government square is called the new building .
gallery
Cantonal court of Graubünden in the old building, seen from Poststrasse
Former restaurant “Staubiges Hüetli”, the place where Jörg Jenatsch was murdered
literature
- Leza Dosch; The old building in Chur. (Swiss Art Guide, No. 919, Series 92). Ed. Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 2012, ISBN 978-3-03797-068-3 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Art guide through Switzerland, 6th edition, page 132
- ↑ Leza Dosch; The old building in Chur from the series Schweizerische Kunstführer series 92 No. 919 page 2
- ↑ Johannes Eue: Graubünden. DuMont-Reiseverlag, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-7701-5927-6 , p. 75.
Coordinates: 46 ° 50 '58 " N , 9 ° 31' 50.6" E ; CH1903: 759 546 / one hundred and ninety thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven