Fraumünster

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Fraumünster in Zurich
View from the Karlsturm of the Grossmünster: on the left the town house , on the right the Fraumünster and the Münsterhof, between the two buildings the area of ​​the historic cloister

The Fraumünster in Zurich ( Canton of Zurich , Switzerland ) is one of the four reformed old town churches and one of the city's landmarks. The former convent Fraumünster was a Benedictine pen with the rank of a Fürstabtei .

Founding legend

Founding legend

According to the founding legend, the two daughters of the East Franconian King Ludwig the German , Hildegard and Bertha , moved to Baldern Castle on the Albis in order to dedicate their lives to God in isolation. They often wandered to nearby Zurich to pray in a chapel there. God gave each of the pious sisters a deer with them on their way, the antlers of which shone brightly and thus showed them the way through the dark forest. The stag showed them a spot by the Limmat where they should build a church. King Ludwig then donated the Fraumünster Abbey at the designated place, which was headed first by Hildegard and, after her death, by her sister Bertha.

The founding legend was taken up by Paul Bodmer for the painting of the Fraumünster cloister in 1924–34. A fresco of the founding legend from the time of Abbess Elisabeth von Wetzikon (1270–1298) was whitewashed during the Reformation, rediscovered in the mid-19th century and signed by Franz Hegi - afterwards it was whitewashed again and thus irretrievably destroyed. During the renovation work in the 2000s, this colored panel was placed in the place where the original fresco was to be found (burial niche of the abbesses). The Gesellschaft zu Fraumünster , which was founded in 1988, included the legend in its coat of arms, which features a white stag on a blue background with three yellow lights in its antlers.

history

Surname

Since the 9th century, the monastery was Latin as Monasterium Thuricense resp. "Abbey of Felix and Regula" . The German “Münster” appeared for the first time in 1267, “Fraumünster” in the oldest yearbook of the city of Zurich in the first half of the 14th century. The monastery is mentioned in the letter of judgment , the oldest written city law of Zurich, under the name "Gotshus von Zürich" . From the 14th century to 1524 the name Gotzhus zu Frowenmünster was in use.

founding

Founding document of the Fraumünster Abbey in the State Archives of the Canton of Zurich

The Fraumünster monastery was founded on July 21, 853 by Ludwig the German , a grandson of Charlemagne , by transferring an existing small monastery to his eldest daughter Hildegard. The donation was connected with considerable land holdings in Urnerland , the Hof Cham , the Albiswald, the Sihlwald , land in Horgen , Langnau and the Reppischtal . In addition, the monastery received its own jurisdiction, i. That is, it was exempted from the count's power, and the royal court in Zurich. After the Carolingians died out , an imperial bailiff was appointed to protect the monastery and its rights. The deed of foundation, which was issued in the royal chancellery in Regensburg, is the oldest written deed in the state archive of the canton of Zurich .

During the entire life of the monastery, women from the high nobility were admitted to the monastery in return for payment of a dowry, who lived according to the Benedictine order , but had the right to resign and marry. The noble privilege that only women de Comitum genere procreatae were allowed to be admitted to the Fraumünster monastery apparently existed for a long time only informally, as it was first recorded in a bull by Pope Innocent VII on February 6, 1406 from Viterbo .

Heyday

Kratzquartier , Fraumünster and Münsterhof on the altarpieces by Hans Leu the Elder
The Fraumünster Abbey and the market on the Münsterhof, Murerplan from 1576
Fraumünster around 1700, depiction by Gerold Escher
View from the Grossmünsterturm to the Fraumünster with the old abbey buildings around 1757: Situation before the major changes in the 19th century on a watercolor by Franz Schmid , 1830

The imperial bailiwick over the Fraumünster was with the Dukes of Zähringen after 1097 , then went to the Counts of Lenzburg around 1153, only to revert to the Dukes of Zähringen after they died out in 1173. The abbess received from Emperor Heinrich III. the customs, market and mint law and thus became the actual city mistress of Zurich. The Salian kings stayed in Zurich repeatedly and also visited the Fraumünster. On Christmas 1055, King Henry IV celebrated his engagement to Bertha of Savoy in the Fraumünster Church . In the 13th century the monastery reached the peak of its power and importance: in 1218 the later Emperor Friedrich II took over the imperial bailiwick over the Fraumünster himself, the Fraumünster became directly imperial. Instead of a powerful aristocratic family like that of the Zähringer, citizens of Zurich now took over the office of Imperial Bailiff for two years, which gave the abbey significantly more leeway. King Heinrich (VII.) , Governor of Emperor Friedrich II., Finally elevated abbess Judenta von Hagenbuch to the rank of imperial prince before 1234. As princess abbesses, the monastery heads exerted considerable political influence on the city and the surrounding area of ​​Zurich. A little later, during the interregnum of 1262 , the city of Zurich fought for autonomy from the monastery. Elisabeth von Wetzikon , abbess from 1270 to 1298, was an important figure among the princess abbesses of those years .

In the upheavals of 1336 under Rudolf Brun , the Fraumünster monastery lost the right to appoint the mayor and the lower jurisdiction, but retained the right to pardon, through which it could overturn the judgments of the city jurisdiction. In 1400 the city of Zurich finally acquired the imperial bailiwick.

Possession and dominion

In the founding deed, the original furnishings of the Fraumünster Abbey by Ludwig the Germans are recorded as follows: «... our court in Zurich, located in the Duchy of Alemannia in the state of Thurgau, with everything that belongs to it or belongs to it or depends on it elsewhere, i.e. the little country Uri, with churches, houses and veins standing on it, with its own of every gender and age, with built and uncultivated land, with forests, meadows and pastures, with standing and flowing waters, paths, exits and entrances, with what has been acquired or to be acquired all interest and the various inclines, moreover also our forest, called Albis, and everything that is in those places of our rights and property and currently appears to be in our hands, completely and completely given to our monastery ... ». In later times, the property was outlined more precisely on the occasion of court cases. The Zurich farm (the St. Peter farm with the area between Limmat and Sihl and the Stadelhof with the area between the right bank of the lake to the Glatttal and the sub-farms Aeugst , Illingen , Fällanden , Hofstetten , Meilen ), owned in Maur , Rümlang , Wipkingen , Boswil , Zins vom Zürichberg , Hof Cham , Albis and the former royal estates in Uri , in particular all church records with the associated church tithes. Extensive property in Birmensdorf , Riesbach , Hüttikon , Ludretikon , Wiedikon as well as farms in Haslital and Alsace ( Altheim , Ammersweyer ( Ammerschweier ), Kiensheim ( Kientzheim ), Karsbach , Schlettstadt ) came later through donations . This made the Fraumünster Abbey - in terms of ownership - the most important monastery in what is now Switzerland, and even surpassed St. Gallen and Reichenau .

In today's city of Zurich, the Fraumünster owned numerous houses, courtyards and gardens on both sides of the Limmat. In particular, all the mills on the Sihl and Limmat rivers belonged to the abbey, as well as the soil on which the towers of the ministerial families Mülner , Manesse , Biber, etc. were built. The abbey obtained additional income from market, coin and customs law in Zurich. King Henry III left these rights with all regalia to the abbey between 1045 and 1096, Heinrich V explicitly confirmed this donation in 1114. Because of this extensive position of power in Zurich, the abbess is rightly referred to as the medieval “city mistress” of Zurich. In fact, she ruled the city through the offices of mayor, bailiff, mint master and customs officer, which she had created and originally occupied with her ministerials. Later the city council emerged from these offices. The oldest surviving coins of the abbey date from around 1100. The circle of coins in which these coins were exclusively valid included the Thurgau , the Zürichgau and the Aargau up to the Hauenstein , with the exception of areas on Lake Constance. The right to mint was soon leased to various people and institutions and finally passed to the city, even if it remained legally with the abbey until it was abolished.

secularization

After a long phase of internal decline, the few conventual women remaining in the monastery - at times there were three - had almost completely emancipated themselves from the Benedictine rule. The women each lived in their own apartment and ran a household with servants. They wore worldly clothing, which was allowed to consist of fabrics in the colors white, gray, black and red. There was also the privilege that the conventual women were allowed to leave the monastery and marry. This situation was expressly confirmed by Pope Innocent VII in his bull of 1406. The Pope called the monastery saecularis ecclesia - secular church - and not a monastery. The only monastic duty was that women continued to pray in the choir. The Zurich Council was often concerned about the poor conditions in the Convention and sought reforms.

The last abbess, Katharina von Zimmer , abolished the convent in the course of the Reformation under Ulrich Zwingli on November 30, 1524 and handed over all rights and possessions to the council of Zurich. The city administered the properties through the Fraumünsteramt and let the income flow into the city treasury. Katharina became a citizen of the city of Zurich and in 1525 married the knight Eberhard von Rischach (actually von Reischach ).

Fraumünster Church

The church of the Fraumünster was built from the middle of the 9th century and consecrated in 874. Relics were transferred from the grave of Felix and Regula in the Grossmünster to the new church. Together with the Wasserkirche and the Grossmünster , the Fraumünster Church formed a processional axis in relation to Saints Felix and Regula until the Reformation.

A tower was built in 1150 and 1250, of which the southern one was demolished in 1728 and the northern one raised in 1732.

From the middle of the 13th century the church was rebuilt and expanded in the Gothic style. The nave was last rebuilt in 1911. The whole church was stripped of the altars, the decorations and the organ during the Reformation until 1527. In 1544 a pulpit was built for the sermon. In 1847 Ferdinand Keller exposed the medieval wall paintings again and had them painted with watercolors by Franz Hegi . The most important painting, probably made shortly around 1300, hung in the south transept and showed the founding legend. It is largely destroyed today. The last comprehensive interior and exterior renovation of the Fraumünster took place between 2006 and 2007. At that time, a problematic film-forming latex paint in the interior was removed from the renovation in 1979. The remaining medieval ceiling and wall paintings could be examined and preserved.

The choir from 1250–1270 was equipped with five glass windows by Marc Chagall from 1967 : the red prophet window , the blue law window , the green Christ window , the yellow Zion window and the blue Jacob window . In 1978, Chagall also created a window for the rosette of the south transept . Another important stained glass window is Heavenly Paradise (1945) by Augusto Giacometti in the north transept. The organ of the Fraumünster is the largest in the canton of Zurich with 5793 pipes.

The monastery buildings housed the Fraumünsteramt until 1803. The Collegium Humanatis had its seat in the west wing from 1601–1832 . In 1715 the so-called Haberhaus was converted into a music hall. In the 19th century, the city of Zurich set up a school in the empty monastery buildings.

In 1898 the monastery complex was demolished for the construction of the new Zurich town hall . Parts of the Romanesque cloister were recycled in the inner courtyard of the town house. A cycle of frescoes by Paul Bodmer depicts the legend of the founding of the monastery and the city saints Felix and Regula. At that time, city architect Gustav Gull  also built two new entrances in the west and east and the earlier ones that led to the Münsterhof were closed. This conversion was partially reversed as part of the redesign of the Münsterhof, so that the main entrance now leads to the traffic-free square.

organ

Main organ and Heaton window

The organ system consists of a main organ and a choir organ with a total of 95 registers .

Main organ

The main organ was built in 1953 by the organ building company Geneva AG (Geneva). The slider chest instrument has 82 stops on four manual works and pedal and a free pipe prospect. The playing and stop actions are electric.

I main work C – a 3
1. Principal 16 ′
2. Dumped 16 ′
3. Principal 8th'
4th Dumped 8th'
5. Flauto major 8th'
6th Gemshorn 8th'
7th Octave 4 ′
8th. Hollow flute 4 ′
9. Octave 2 ′
10. flute 2 ′
11. Cornet V 8th'
12. Mixture V 2 ′
13. Mixture IV 1'
14th Cimbel III 13
15th Bombard 16 ′
16. Trumpet 8th'
17th Clairon 4 ′
II Positive C – a 3
18th Quintatön 16 ′
19th Principal 8th'
20th Coupling flute 8th'
21st Delicately covered 8th'
22nd Salicional 8th'
23. Principal 4 ′
24. recorder 4 ′
25th Principal 2 ′
26th Forest flute 2 ′
27. third 1 35
28. Far fifth 1 13
29 Mixture V-VI 1'
30th shelf 16 ′
31. Schalmey 8th'
32. musette 4 ′
Tremulant
III Récit C – a 3
33. Bourdon 16 ′
34. diapason 8th'
35. Bourdon 8th'
36. Flûte harm. 8th'
37. Viola da gamba 8th'
38. Voix Celeste 8th'
39. Cor de Nuit 8th'
40. Octave 4 ′
41. flute 4 ′
42. Gemshorn 4 ′
43. Nasard 2 23
44. Night horn 2 ′
45. Octave 2 ′
46. third 1 35
47. Mixture V-VI 1 13
48. Cimbel III-IV 12
49. Bombard 16 ′
50. Trumpet 8th'
51. oboe 8th'
52. Clairon 4 ′
IV Crown positive C – a 3
53. Dumped 8th'
54. Quintatön 8th'
55. Principal 4 '
56. Reed flute 4 ′
57. Sesquialtera II 2 23 '+ 1 35 '
58. Super octave 2 ′
59. Sharp fifth 1 13
60. Octave 1'
61. Sharp III 12
62. Krummhorn 8th'
Tremulant

V Fernwerk C – g 3
(Register of the choir organ)
Pedal C – g 1
63. flute 32 ′
64. Principal 16 ′
65. flute 16 ′
66. Sub bass 16 ′
67. Echo bass 16 ′
68. Principal 8th'
69. diapason 8th'
70. Capstan flute 8th'
71. Bourdon 8th'
72. Octave 4 ′
73. Hollow flute 4 ′
74. flute 2 ′
75. Rauschpfeife IV 4 ′
76. Mixture VI 2 23
77. Contraposaune 32 ′
78. trombone 16 ′
79. Lovely trumpet 16 ′
80. Trumpet 8th'
81. Delicate trumpet 8th'
82. Clairon 4 ′
  • Pair : I / P, II / P, III / P

Choir organ

The choir organ was built in 1971 by the Manufacture d'Orgues Muhleisen (Strasbourg). The slider chest instrument has 13 stops on two manuals and a pedal. The playing and stop actions are mechanical. The choir organ can be played as a remote control from the main organ.

I Hauptwerk C – g 3
1. Suavial 8th'
2. Flute 8th'
3. Octave 4 ′
4th Reed flute 4 ′
5. Cornet III 2 23
6th Mixture IV 2 ′
II subsidiary work C – g 3
7th Dumped 8th'
8th. recorder 4 ′
9. Principal 2 ′
10. Cimbel II-III 1'
11. shelf 8th'
Pedals C – f 1
12. Sub bass 16 ′
13. Bourdon 8th'

Bells

In the tower hangs a ring from five church bells . The four large bells were cast by Jakob Keller in Unterstrass in 1874. However, since they did not fit into the Zurich city bells, they were tuned half a tone lower. Since Pentecost 2007, a small, fifth bell has been filling the empty compartment in the wooden belfry. It was cast in the Rüetschi bell foundry in Aarau . Since then, the ringing sounds in the tones b 0 , es 1 , g 1 , b 1 and c 2 . Every Saturday evening at 7 p.m. at the Sunday ring and immediately before the main service on Sunday, it can be heard for a quarter of an hour. As usual in Zurich, there are two signs for the main service. The first ring begins at 8.55 a.m., the second at 9.25 a.m. As a rule, the second largest bell is used for this, which is replaced on festive days by the largest and on the highest holidays by the chord of the three large bells. Usually the big bell rings the service, on festive days everyone rings. The clock is struck by bells 4 and 3 (quarter hours) and 1 (full hours).

Fraumünster parish

Today the Fraumünster Church is the church of the parish of Fraumünster, which with 200 members is the smallest of the 34 Evangelical Reformed parishes in the city of Zurich.

The parish, however, has a preaching parish that extends far beyond its own parish area. Signs of this are the 200 to 400 worshipers who come to the Fraumünster every week, and the Fraumünster Association, which has 1,100 preachers who do not live in the parish area. The reason for this is the high preaching tradition of the church, which has been cultivated since the 19th century, to which the theology professors from the University of Zurich such as Emil Brunner who lived in the community at times contributed.

The Fraumünster Choir, which has been in existence since 1871 and has over 100 members, performs a sacred work with orchestra accompaniment under the direction of the Fraumünster organist in addition to participating in the church service.

Abbesses of the Fraumünster

The following list is based on Vogelsanger:

See also

literature

  • Regine Abegg and Christine Barraud Wiener: The Art Monuments of the Canton of Zurich , New Edition II.I. The city of Zurich II.I: old town on the left of the Limmat, religious buildings. Society for Swiss Art History, Bern 2002. ISBN 3-906131-03-3 .
  • Walter Baumann: Zurich's churches, monasteries and chapels up to the Reformation . NZZ Libro, Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-85823-508-3 .
  • Emil Brunner : Fraumünster sermons . Zwingli-Verlag, Zurich 1953.
  • Konrad Escher: The art monuments of the canton of Zurich. Vol. 4. The City of Zurich, Part One . (The art monuments of Switzerland). Birkhäuser, Basel 1939.
  • Klaus Guggisberg: The jump into the fountain: the Giacometti window in the Fraumünster. Sermons by Klaus Guggisberg. Th. Gut, Stäfa 1996, ISBN 3-85717-102-2 .
  • Irene Gysel and Barbara Helbling (eds.): Zurich's last abbess Katharina von Zimmer. 1478-1547 . NZZ Libro, Zurich 1999, ISBN 3-85823-829-5 .
  • Irmgard Vogelsanger-de Roche: Fraumünster Zurich. Swiss Art Guide GSK, Volume 257. 3. Corr. Edition, Bern 1990.
  • Peter Vogelsanger : Zurich and its Fraumünster. An eleven hundred year history (853–1956) . NZZ Libro, Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-85823-515-6 .
  • Christine Barraud Wiener, Regine Abegg: The Fraumünster in Zurich. (Swiss Art Guide, No. 839, Series 84). Ed.  Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 2008, ISBN 978-3-85782-839-3 .
  • Heinrich Murer: Dominarum Monasterium Thuricense (Chronicle of the Fraumünster Monastery). Cantonal Library of Thurgau , Y 117. Digitized .
  • Jeannette Röthlisberger, New Year's Gazette of the Gesellschaft zu Fraumünster on the year 2020 (fourteenth piece) on the abbess and duchess Reginlinde , Edition Gutenberg, Zurich 2020, ISSN  1663-5264 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. Vogelsanger, Zurich and his Fraumünster, p. 467, note 1.
  2. Signature: StAZH C II 2 No. 1. See Vogelsanger, Zurich and his Fraumünster, pp. 35 and 467, note 2.
  3. ^ The privilege is also recorded in deed of foundation 853 in the British Museum, but is a later interpolation. Vogelsanger, Zurich and his Fraumünster, p. 231.
  4. The diploma is lost, the abbess is addressed for the first time in a document dated October 6, 1234 by the king as princess. Vogelsanger, Zurich and his Fraumünster, p. 130.
  5. ^ German translation based on Vogelsanger, Zurich and his Fraumünster, p. 37
  6. Vogelsanger, Zurich and his Fraumünster, p. 107f.
  7. Vogelsanger, Zurich and his Fraumünster, pp. 118f and 133.
  8. Vogelsanger, Zurich and his Fraumünster, pp. 231f.
  9. Adi Kälin: The Fraumünster opens again to the Münsterhof . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . No. 260 , November 7, 2012 ( article on NZZonline ).
  10. More information about the main organ
  11. More information about the choir organ
  12. A silvery sound for the Fraumünster . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . May 26, 2007 ( NZZ-Online ).
  13. to Vogelsanger, Zurich and his Fraumünster, p. 279.

Coordinates: 47 ° 22 ′ 11 "  N , 8 ° 32 ′ 28"  E ; CH1903:  683,271  /  247127