Endingerhorn

View from the harbor to the bastion, on the left the wall that bounds the garden of the Capuchin monastery to the south, Kempraten in the background

View from Bühler-Allee

View from the Capuchin Garden

Bühler fountain

Heraldic shields of the city and imperial eagle as well as two of the loopholes

The western bastion on the area of ​​the same name of the medieval city fortifications of Rapperswil , a district of the Swiss municipality of Rapperswil-Jona in the canton of St. Gallen , is known as the Endingerhorn .

location

The bastion formed the western end of the city ​​fortifications of Rapperswil , outside the old town and, together with the eastern buildings of the Endinger tower and the hermit's house, formed the strongest bulwark of the city ​​of Rapperswil built on a peninsula on Lake Zurich . The small fort was integrated into the walls of the Capuchin monastery, completed in 1607, and replaced a small tower protected by palisades. At the end of the 1880s, Bühler-Allee was built around the peninsula, starting from the Curti-Haus up to the mouth of the Stadtbach at Giessi-Wiese, and a small park with park benches and a fountain was built as a memorial to the builder of the avenue.

Building history

Destruction of Rapperswil , Stumpf'sche Chronik from 1547/48, view of Kempraten , on the far right the predecessor building of the bastion

The area of ​​the Endingerhorn on the city model in the city ​​museum , construction status around 1765/1800

The building history of the trapezoidal bastion in the west of the castle hill is well documented. Until the construction of the Capuchin monastery, the area at Endingerhorn was largely unpaved; a small tower formed the end of the outer fortification wall, starting from the Haldenturm at the Stadtbach , along the north-eastern flank of the Lindenhof on the Kempraten Bay . It was not necessary to fortify the steeply sloping southern flank of the castle hill ; it was only dismantled with the construction of the monastery complex and laboriously. The fortress section with the attached semicircular Endinger tower formed the western end of the lake-side fortification until 1597, which ended with the construction of the Capuchin monastery and the bastion at Endingerhorn - the surrounding wall of the monastery was integrated into the city fortifications from 1603 and up to the western end of the peninsula expanded.

During the siege of Rapperswil (1656) , the fortress structures proved their worth, albeit with great human lives and immense material damage. Guns secured the Endingerhorn and the former rifle house , which towered over the western bastion thanks to its location on the Lindenhof. On January 7, the defenders struck the Endingerhorn palisades in Lake Zurich to secure the inner harbor against Zurich warships, while more troops moved into the city over the bridge from Hurden. On January 8, the Zurich-based artillery from the east opened the fortification located Kreuzli (Kreuzwiese) from the shelling of the city. The Zurich ships should have been shot at from the Kapuzinergarten, but they were stuck on Lake Zurich as the sea froze that began and remained out of range. Thereafter, the attacks by the Zurich troops concentrated on the pier and the land side of the city fortifications, especially in the area of ​​the bastion at Engelplatz .

After the city of Zurich put two more warships into service at the end of the hostilities, the enclosing walls at Endingerhorn were expanded like a fortress in 1659. At the fortifications most endangered by the sea, the outer walls were reinforced with palisades, protected with battlements , and the small fort was provided with loopholes. In 1662 the Rapperswil council decided to replace the final block tower with a square bulwark that could easily fire at ships. The council commissioned a competent Capuchin with the construction of the bulwark . In 1669 the protective palisades were removed and the walls raised. The reinforced fortifications made it possible to protect the most exposed area of ​​Rapperswil with a small crew and four to six guns. Today this is the historically most important remnant of the former city fortifications in the west of the city.

literature

• Peter Röllin: Rapperswil-Jona cultural building set: 36 museums without a roof . Rapperswil-Jona 2005, ISBN 3-033-00478-4 .

Web links

Commons : Endingerhorn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} David Nüscheler: Website Villmergerkriege 1656 and 1712 , Geschichte der Zürcherischen Artillerie , Feuerwerker-Gesellschaft, Zurich 1850, accessed on April 27, 2013.
2. ^ ^{A b} Website of the Rapperswil Capuchin Monastery, history, accessed on April 28, 2008

Coordinates: 47 ° 13 '36.5 "  N , 8 ° 48' 42.7"  E ; CH1903:  seven hundred and three thousand nine hundred ninety-seven  /  231564