Eschenberg (Winterthur)
| Eschenberg | ||
|---|---|---|
 The 30 meter high Eschenberg tower |
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| height | 597 m above sea level M. | |
| location | Canton of Zurich , Switzerland | |
| Dominance | 2.3 km → Chämleterwald | |
| Notch height | 97 m ↓ Seemer Buck | |
| Coordinates | 697 693 / 259 456 | |
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The Eschenberg is a wooded hill in Winterthur in the canton of Zurich . The city forest of Winterthur is a local recreation area.
geography
The Eschenberg is located south of the city center of Winterthur. On the western side it is delimited from the Töss district and on the eastern side from the lakes district . The forest area itself belongs to about half each of the districts Stadt and Mattenbach north of the forest area. A small part in the east belongs to the lakes district. In the south the Eschenberg drops sharply to the river Töss , by which it is bounded in the south. The approximately 8.5 km² large Eschenberg has a relatively wide summit plateau without major bumps, apart from a few smaller Bachtobeln. Important streams that contribute to the drainage of the forest include the Hintere Chrebsbach (catchment area 1.68 km²) and the Steintobelbach (1.21 km²). Furthermore, there are many other small streams in the north that drain the Eschenberg towards Mattenbach .
history
The oldest human trace on the Eschenberg is a burial mound in the Ried corridor, which probably dates from prehistoric times ; Nothing is known about another settlement from this period. It is believed that the large forest clearing on the Eschenberg was settled by immigrant Alemanni as early as the 5th century . By 1246 at the latest, the Eschenberg farm was on record at the site of today's restaurant of the same name. In the 12./13. In the 19th century there were two bailey of the Counts of Kyburg above the Töss on the Eschenberg , on the Langenberg and on the Gamser , of which nothing can be seen today.
In the town charter , which Winterthur received from Rudolf I von Habsburg in 1264 , it was stated that Winterthur was given the forest " for usufruct under the general law, as it is usually called common land, just as it is recognized from ancient times ". In the Latin original, this is indicated by the sentence " Item Silva dicta Eschaberch eo jure communi quod volgo dicitur gimeinmerche, quemadmodum bactenus ab antiquo fuisse dinoscitur, in vsum ville cedet abhinc inantea memoratae. »Documented. The right of use of the citizens of Winterthur to the forest was also recorded in writing. For example, they were allowed to fetch firewood from the forest, which was of great importance. To regulate the use of the city forest, Winterthur already knew a timber code in 1340, which forbade it to cut timber without official permission. The right to use the city was confirmed again by Emperor Sigismund in 1433 , but without granting the city ownership of the forest. The fact that the Habsburgs granted the city the right of use, but retained the hunting rights for themselves, later gave rise to disputes with the city of Zurich several times , because they claimed the hunting rights. It was later contractually guaranteed to Winterthur together with hunting grounds on the Lindberg .
The Big Brother house, is dated back to the 13th century Franciscan - Hermitage . In 1426 a chapel was added to the hermitage, which was demolished in 1786 because it was dilapidated. In 1525 the hermitage was closed due to "abnormal behavior" (three years earlier one of the brothers was burned at the stake ) in the course of the Reformation and converted into an old people's home.
At that time there were several farms in the area of the Eschenberg, back then it was not as densely forested as it is today. The area between today's clearing Eschenberg and Sennhof was connected by fields and the Leisen- and Häsental was used for agriculture. From 1520 to 1752 the city purposefully bought up farms in the Eschenberg, so that from 1725 the city owned the entire Eschenberg. The previously acquired farms in Eschenberg were all afforested in the period from 1830 to 1850, with the exception of the Eschenberg farm, which was reduced in size. From 1838 to 1850, the forest on the Eschenberg regained 140 hectares. This reforestation was not only done out of love for the forest: documents at the time show that the wood from the Eschenberg had been in short supply for a long time and its use had to be regulated accordingly.
In 1875 around 20 hectares of forest were cleared in the Vogelsang area in order to provide the growing Winterthur with more building land; originally 42 hectares were planned. As a substitute for the cleared areas, small farms on the Kümberg ob Turbenthal were bought and reforested, this forest area being the fourth Winterthur urban forest to be owned by the city to this day. This was possible because at that time there was no federal forest law and the Zurich law allowed such clearing with appropriate compensation. The reforestation of the Kümberg would not have been necessary, as the city had already reforested seven times the area through the abandoned farms.
In the 19th century, the forest was increasingly used as a local recreation area: in 1838 an inn was opened in the Bruderhaus, and in 1849 near Eschenberg. The Eschenberg Tower was built in 1889 and the Bruderhaus wildlife park was added in 1890.
Recreation area
The forest with its extensive network of hiking trails is now a destination not only for the people of Winterthur. Today there are still two clearings in the vast forest. In the larger clearing are the Eschenberg farm and restaurant as well as the Eschenberg observatory, which opened in 1979 . When the weather is nice, it is open to the general public on Wednesday evenings and also during special heavenly events, but also offers the possibility of an exclusive visit on other weekend evenings by appointment. The observatory has also been used to research small cosmic bodies since 1998 and has even made a name for itself internationally, especially with the measurement of newly discovered objects near the earth.
The Bruderhaus wildlife park with restaurant is in the second clearing . The wildlife park is accessed in the summer months by bus line 12 from Stadtbus Winterthur , which runs on Wednesday afternoons and on weekends. During this time, access to the Bruderhaus will be restricted for individual traffic.
In the middle of the forest, on the highest point of the mountain 597 m above sea level. M. (156 meters above the old town of Winterthur ) is the 30 meter high Eschenberg tower .
Sports
The Eschenberg is used as an orienteering area . During the orienteering world championships in 2003 , the long distance women and men were held in Eschenberg.
In the clearing Eschenberg, the Eschenbergschwinget is held annually by the Schwingklub Winterthur . The first Schwinget of this kind took place in 1903 and was held regularly on the Eschenberg with a few guest performances in other places, especially on the Sporrer in Wülflingen . Since 1932 (with the exception of 1945) the Schwingtag has taken place on the Eschenberg without interruption.
literature
- Michael Wiesner: Forest time: Forests for Winterthur . Natural Science Society Winterthur, Winterthur 1997, ISBN 3-9521356-0-7 .
- Markus Griesser: Winterthur's great moments - 40 years of the Eschenberg observatory . Astronomical Society Winterthur, Winterthur 2018, ISBN 978-3-03306812-4 .
Web links
- The book "Waldzeit: Forests for Winterthur" by Michael Wiesner online
- Homepage of the Eschenberg observatory
- Eschenberg Forest in Winterthur Glossary.
- Eschenberg, Restaurant und Hof im Winterthur Glossary.