Eichbühl cemetery

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Panorama to the north
The cemetery chapel at the highest point of the complex
The shelter - or pavilion - at the north entrance

The Eichbühl cemetery is a cemetery in the Altstetten district , in the west of Zurich . It lies on the flat slope of the Buechhogers, the northernmost foothill of the Albis chain and the Uetliberg .

history

In 1956 a public project competition was announced for this third-youngest and second-largest cemetery in Zurich. In 1958, landscape architect Fred Eicher won the competition to design the garden together with Ernst Graf . The architectural team Hans and Annemarie Hubacher and Issler was responsible for the buildings.

Area and buildings

The Eichbühl cemetery was built in the vicinity of the older Albisrieden and Altstetten cemeteries and complements these two district cemeteries , which had reached their capacity limits due to the population growth.

The topography of the cemetery is given its rectangular orientation, running from southeast to northwest. From Friedhofstrasse, the visitor walks through the monumental portal, from where two longitudinal axes extend through the site. One leads uphill to the southwest to the abdication hall and from there as a high path. The other longitudinal axis extends over a concrete ramp through the main avenue to the shelter and fountain basin by the Salzweg. A third axis runs along the eastern border of the cemetery and opens up the six concrete-walled grave fields for burials.

One of the core ideas of landscape architect Fred Eicher was to take up the foothills of the Uetliberg and let them flow in undulating movements through the cemetery over the main path to the earth spurs near the burial fields.

Specialty

Like the Schwandenholz cemetery in the north of Zurich, the Eichbühl cemetery also has land reserves for burials in the event of a disaster. The land reserves are located on either side of the path from the main entrance to the Abdication Chapel; the preparations for burial fields can be seen clearly in the slope of the hill on the north side of the path to the abdication chapel.

Appreciation

The Eichbühl cemetery is considered by experts to be one of the most important works of modern Swiss landscape architecture . It impresses with an exceptionally generous use of the available space and the skillful use of shapes and lines. There are hardly any other gardens with such extensive space in Switzerland. After a referendum in 1963 on the building loan, the cemetery complex was completed in 1963–1966, and the high-rise buildings were completed a little later, so that the Eichbühl cemetery could be inaugurated in 1968. In 1985, the landscape architect Balz Hoffman developed a new planting concept, and in the early 1990s there was a return to the original concept.

The buildings that skilfully fit into the complex also deserve special attention. The cemetery chapel was placed on the highest point. With its carved concrete walls and the wooden sculpture in the skyward-facing glass front, this reflects the style of the 1960s. The laying out with its laying out cells in red-brown tropical wood and medium-brown wall tiles is dignified and calm. At the rear of the facility is the shelter, a large concrete roof that rests on two small posts. In its unusual shape it is reminiscent of the buildings by Le Corbusier .

In 2004, Fred Eicher received the Schulthess Garden Prize in recognition of his work. Although he realized hundreds of gardens at home and abroad between 1959 and 1995, the Eichbühl cemetery is described as his most important work.

  • Three corresponding round shapes by Robert Lienhard

  • Hans Hubacher's cemetery chapel

  • Organ in the chapel

  • Relief wall by Robert Lienhard, relief by Otto Müller

Graves of important personalities

The Eichbühl cemetery is the final resting place of:

  • Jakob Andreff , 1919–1976, clown
  • Edwin Frech-Schmid, 1916–1988, City Councilor of Zurich

See also

literature

  • Norbert Loacker , Christoph Hänsli: Where Zurich comes to rest. The cemeteries of the city of Zurich. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-280-02809-4 .
  • Daniel Foppa: Famous and forgotten dead in Zurich's cemeteries. 2nd, supplemented and updated edition. Limmat, Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-85791-446-7 .

Web links

Commons : Eichbühl cemetery  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Norbert Loacker, Christoph Hänsli: Where Zurich comes to rest. 1998, pp. 33-34.
  2. ^ Fachstelle Naturschutz, quoted from: Norbert Loacker, Christoph Hänsli: Where Zurich comes to rest. 1998, p. 35.
  3. ↑ Norbert Loacker, Christoph Hänsli: Where Zurich comes to rest. 1998, p. 33.
  4. ↑ Schweizer Heimatschutz (Ed.): Fred Eicher landscape architect. Schulthess Garden Prize 2004. Swiss Heritage Protection, Zurich 2004.

Coordinates: 47 ° 23 ′ 6 "  N , 8 ° 28 ′ 21"  E ; CH1903:  678067  /  248755