Freienhof (Lucerne)
The outdoor courtyard was a building at the southern bridgehead of the Chapel of Lucerne whose building history reaches, at the latest from the Middle Ages until its demolition in the 1949th
Structure and name
The Freienhof consisted of three parts of the house: a front building on the lake side with arbors and the gate to the Chapel Bridge , a fortified rear building on Hirschengraben, which became part of the city wall, and a connecting central building. It probably owes its name to the Frey trading family. In the 14th and 15th centuries it was also called "Goventor", although it is not clear whether "gov" refers to the bridge entrance as a pinhole or to children who usually played in the bowling area under the arbors of the front building had.
Building history
Medieval defense tower
The oldest part of the Freienhof was probably the rear building, which was built in the Middle Ages as a defensive stone residential tower to protect the courtyards on the left bank of the Reuss . After the construction of the curtain wall from the second half of the 13th to the 14th century and the construction of the Chapel Bridge around 1365, the Freienhof was integrated into city life and played a special role in the security concept of the small town in Lucerne: it formed the eastern end the ring wall and connected it with the Chapel Bridge and thus with the larger urban area on the right bank of the Reuss. The owner of the Freienhof had the control of the keys over the gate to the bridge and provided the guards.
Pfyffers brewery
In the 17th century the Jesuit church was built west of the Freienhof . Due to the Jesuit property policy, the structural development opportunities for the Freienhof were limited. In the first half of the 19th century, the Pfyffer family, who owned it at the time, succeeded in enlarging the area by backfilling the east side and by structural conversion of the arbors. The Freienhof became a beer brewery with an inn and beer garden. On the west side a three-story arose between Freienhof and Jesuit Church Art Cabinet . From 1833 the Freienhof lost its function as a bridge gate. The city of Lucerne shortened the Chapel Bridge and built a new quay (Bahnhofstrasse) and additional building land on the eastern side. The Freienhof became the town house between the Jesuit Church and the newly built Lucerne City Theater .
Modern town house
From 1843 onwards, various businesses were housed under changing owners at the same time or one after the other in the Freienhof: in addition to the brewery, which remained for the time being, there was a café, a delicatessen and southern fruit trade, a bank, an embroidery shop, a food wholesaler, the theater workshop of the Lucerne theater, a goldsmith's studio Theater painting room and a rope factory. In addition, from 1899 the Freienhof served the mountain railway pioneer Roman Abt as a representative residence, for which purpose the facade was enriched with balconies and various decorative elements. In 1943 the Canton of Lucerne bought the Freienhof as a shabby tourist attraction and converted it into a contemporary residential and commercial building until it was demolished in 1949.
The demolition
Three factors led to the demolition of the Freienhof and thus to the complete loss of its historical building fabric:
- For the planned merger of the Lucerne Cantonal Library with the municipal public library, the Canton of Lucerne was looking for a suitable location for the construction of a new central library near the government building on the left bank of the Reuss.
- According to urban planning studies, the late Gothic palace no longer really fitted into the Lucerne townscape, which was shaped by modern architecture .
- The interest in a common central library encouraged the Lucerne city council to quickly approve the cantonal demolition plans.
The historical value of the Freienhof was therefore not recognized by the cantonal and municipal authorities or deemed too low, so that it was completely demolished only a short time after the approval of the Grand Council of the Canton of Lucerne and despite protests in early 1949. The foundations of older buildings that had become visible under the Freienhof were also removed due to the excavation of an excavation pit for the planned new building. Nothing remained.
In the end, the canton decided not to build a new building between the Jesuit church and the city theater and, after swapping land with the city, erected the planned building for the new central and university library in the Vögeligärtli on Sempacherstrasse. The excavation pit was filled in in 1952. Today there is a small lawn in front of the free-standing east facade of the Jesuit Church on the old square of the Freienhof on one side and the theater square on the other. In between there is a street that connects the Hirschengraben with the Bahnhofstrasse.
literature
- Ueli Habegger: Freienhof - a missing building in old Lucerne , ed. by Jost Schumacher, (Innerschweizer Schatztruhe 24), Lucerne 2019.