Central (Zurich)
The Central is a square in the city of Zurich on the Limmat opposite Zurich main station . It is a bottleneck for public and private transport and, because of its location, one of the most important transport hubs in the city center.
location
The Central is located on the right side of the Limmat opposite Central Station Zurich in the north of the city district Old Town (District 1), it to within the Quartier universities belongs. The Central forms the northern end of the Limmatquai .
history
Until the 17th century, the area of the square lay in front of the city wall directly beyond the Niederdorftor, one of the four important city gates of Zurich. The "Strasse nach Schaffhausen" or "Untere Strasse", which gave the district of Unterstrass its name (today Stampfenbachstrasse), began here. Between the street and the Limmat there has been a mill since the 12th century , the "Paradise Mill ". Around 1657, with the construction of the third city fortification, it was integrated into what was then the “Paradies Bollwerk ”. The «Niederdorfpforte» led through the new bulwark out of the extended city. A small square was created in front of the Niederdorftor, where the Seiler and Unterer Hirschengraben tied up. In 1834 the gate, the city wall and the bulwark were demolished.
With the construction of the station bridge between 1861 and 1863, what is now Central became an important traffic junction. The place east of the bridge was originally called Leonhardsplatz , named after the former St. Leonhard chapel near today's Walcheplatz, which was first mentioned in 1240 and was preserved in its main walls until 1880. In the years 1855 to 1859 the Limmatquai was extended to the Central.
Like the Bellevue , the Central got its current name from a hotel, the "Hotel Central" built for the national exhibition in 1883 in house no. 1 of the former Leonhardplatz. Already at the beginning of the 20th century, colloquially Central was only used for Leonhardsplatz. This was taken into account in 1950 with the official renaming.
In the early 1950s, the square was redesigned, with houses even being demolished to make more space for traffic. The Papierwerd island off the Limmat was also removed during this time.
Transport hub
The actual Central with the tram station of the same name forms the core of a roughly pentagonal square area of less than 100 meters in length, which is circled by individual traffic on six main traffic axes in the form of a crooked eight.
Public transport
On October 22nd, 1897, what was then Leonhardsplatz changed from the meeting point of public life to the starting point for urban public transport with the Zurich – Oerlikon – Seebach tram , on the approximately 5.5-kilometer-long Stampfenbachstrasse - Milchbuck (the then northern city limits) - Oerlikon route to Seebach .
There are now six tram lines - 3, 4, 6, 7, 10 and 15 - and the two trolleybus lines 31 and 46 operated by the Zurich Transport Authority (VBZ) at Central. In addition, the valley station of the Polybähnli is located here , which has been climbing a length of 176 meters and a journey time of just under a minute, 41 meters in altitude to the university district since 1889 .
At the weekend also run several ZVV - night lines (N12, N14 and N19, N45 and N78) over Central.
Every day around 46,000 passengers get off at Central and get on the trams and buses. In an inner-city comparison, Central is in seventh place in terms of frequency and number of people out of around 600 stops in the city and region - the front runner is Bellevue.
In 1943 the idea of a so-called SBB train station Leonhardsplatz was discussed for the then right bank of the Zürichseebahn , which should have been connected to the ETH via an access tunnel and a lift system. During the construction of the S-Bahn connection (1990) from Zurich Stadelhofen train station to Zurich main train station, this station came up again as the university station , but it has remained unrealized to this day.
The main train station and Shopville are a two-minute walk away, and the Stadelhofen S-Bahn hub can be reached by tram in around ten minutes.
Private transport
The small square has no open spaces. Six important traffic axes come together at Central (clockwise from the north):
- Neumühlequai from Milchbucktunnel / Letten , motorway junction Zurich East A1L and urban national road SN 1.
- Stampfenbachstrasse to Schaffhauserplatz to Zurich North and Schwamendingen .
- Weinbergstrasse the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich .
- Seilergraben in the direction of the Kunsthaus Zürich and the north-eastern city quarters.
- Limmatquai , which has been operating since 25./26. September 2004 is traffic-calmed . Since December 2006, it has been part of the pedestrian zone between the Münster and Rudolf-Brun bridges , which is closed to private traffic.
- Railway station bridge to Zurich city and to the southern and western city quarters.
Public events
Due to its neuralgic location in Zurich, the Central is usually not closed on occasions and, in contrast to other important public places, is only marginally affected by the Sechseläuten or Carnival parade or the Street Parade .
literature
- Walter Baumann, Alfred Cattani , Hugo Loetscher and Ernst Scheidegger : Zurich scrolled back 1870-1914, Becoming and changing a city , Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-85823-059-6
- Association for the promotion of adult education Zurich 12.11 (ed.): From the history of the former streetcar Zurich-Oerlikon-Seebach (ZOS) , New Year leaf Zurich 11/12, Zurich 1982
- Hans Hoffmann, Paul Kläui: The art monuments of the canton of Zurich. Vol. V: The City of Zurich, Part Two. (The art monuments of Switzerland). Verlag Birkhäuser, Basel 1949
- Hartmann Rordorf: Between Niederdorfpforte, Leonhardsplatz and Stampfenbach in Zurich . Zurich Monthly Chronicle No. 1, Zurich 1936
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The former Niederdorftor (third city fortification on the right bank). In: Gang dur Alt-Züri. Matthias Dürst, accessed on July 3, 2017 .
- ↑ Statistics City of Zurich, Quartierpiegel Hochschulen
- ^ «The Niederdorftor in Zurich. Watercolor around 1800 »
- ↑ City model 1792
- ↑ Cornelia Bauer, Hanspeter Rebsamen, Jan Capol: Bahnhofbrücke . In: INSA: Inventory of modern Swiss architecture, 1850-1920: Cities: Zurich . Orell Füssli, 1992, Bahnhofbrücke, p. 305 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-10931 .
- ↑ a b c Das Central. In: Gang dur Alt-Züri. Matthias Dürst, accessed on July 3, 2017 .
- ↑ Source: Website civil engineering office of the city of Zurich: Limmatquai history ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ^ Matthias Dürst: The Limmatquai. In: Gang dur Alt-Züri. Retrieved July 3, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c d e Daniel Fritzsche: Large construction site in downtown Zurich: The space problem at Central In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung of July 3, 2017
- ↑ The field name "Milchbuck" is derived from the terrain hill (Buck) near Irchelpark , which was known for its nutrient-rich meadow ( fat meadow ) and the high milk yield of the cows grazing there.
- ↑ a b Walk through Alt-Züri: street names
- ↑ The hill above Stampfenbachstrasse was used as a vineyard well into the 19th century. The "zum Weinberg" estate, which was built over in 1905 , gave the street its name.
- ↑ The Seilergraben was the work place of the rope makers and formed the northern border of the first city fortifications in the High Middle Ages .
- ↑ Media release City of Zurich: New quality of life on Limmatquai
Coordinates: 47 ° 22 '36.5 " N , 8 ° 32' 37.4" E ; CH1903: 683,458 / two hundred forty-seven thousand nine hundred sixteen