Gotthard building
The Gotthard building at Schweizerhofquai 6 in Lucerne is considered to be the most representative building in the neo-renaissance style in the canton of Lucerne .
The former administration building of the Gotthard Railway Company is listed as a building worthy of protection in the inventory of recent Swiss architecture (INSA). It was designed by the then chief architect of the Gotthard Railway, Gustav Mossdorf (1831–1907). In a prominent location on the Lucerne lakeshore, the magnificent building forms the eastern end of the row of buildings on the Schweizerhofquai - a bank in the city of Lucerne from the Belle Epoque . The building was planned and built between 1886 and 1889. The typology of the house is based on the disposition usual in contemporary hotel construction at the time. The floor plan shows an axially symmetrical entrance in the middle of the building, a monumental entrance hall, the central staircase and the longitudinal corridors with rooms arranged on both sides.
Today the Gotthard building belongs to Swiss Prime Site and is the seat of the two social law departments of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court .
Gotthard Railway Company
In order to create a railway connection between northern and southern Switzerland , the Gotthard Railway Company was founded on December 6th, 1871, with its headquarters in Lucerne. Its board of directors was constituted on the same day, with National Councilor Dr. Alfred Escher from Zurich was elected. The Zurich - Chiasso line with the 15 km long Gotthard tunnel and numerous engineering structures was opened as early as 1882 . The city of Lucerne initially had no direct connection to the Gotthard Railway. It was only included in the north-south axis in 1897. A year earlier, the new train station was opened, which fell victim to a fire in February 1971.
Construction of the Gotthard building
In 1886, the Gotthard Railway Company's board of directors decided to build a new administration building on Schweizerhofquai in Lucerne. Gustav Mossdorf, the head of the structural engineering department of the Gotthard Railway at the time, was commissioned to work out a project. He proposed a symmetrical three-wing building in the neo-renaissance style, which was built between 1887 and 1889. The ground floor of the building consists of Osogna granite, while the upper floors are made of Ostermundigen sandstone . The lake-side main facade is decorated with rich architectural decorations. Above the four Corinthian columns of the central facade, statues represent engineering, architecture, mechanics and electrical engineering. The generously designed entrance hall is dominated by eight columns made of Wassen granite, a wide three-part staircase and walls made of colored marble decorations. At the foot of the main staircase to the upper floors is a lighting candelabra made of Carrara marble, created by the sculptor Michelangelo Molinari from Clivio / Como province . Long corridors with terrazzo floors connect the central stairwell with the wings of the building.
Boardroom
The former boardroom of the Gotthard Railway Company, now known as the Gotthard Hall, is one of the most valuable interiors of historicism in Lucerne. The interior, made entirely of walnut, includes a richly decorated breast panel with niches in the neo-renaissance style. The tapestry-like fabric paintings above show scenic scenes with engineering structures of the Gotthard Railway. They were made by the interior design company A. Ballié, Basel, based on photographs taken by the renowned French photographer Adolphe Braun for the Gotthard Railway Company. The large three-part table with leather-covered chairs was made by the Lucerne furniture manufacturer F. Herzog. As part of the conversion of the Gotthard building into a courthouse, the hall was restored according to the specifications of the preservation authorities.
Swiss Federal Railways (SBB)
From the transfer of the Gotthard Railway to the federal government on January 1, 1909, the Gotthard building housed District Directorate V of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) until the reorganization in 1924. After that, it was the seat of District Directorate 2 of the SBB until the reorganization in 1999 and from 1999 to 2001 of Facility management Lucerne of the SBB Infrastructure division.
Courthouse
After the structural adjustment of SBB - with the dissolution of District Directorate II Lucerne in 1998 - the Gotthard building no longer met the new requirements for internal use. In 2000, the Federal Office for Buildings and Logistics (BBL) was able to conclude a lease agreement with SBB as the owner of the Gotthard building for the use of the building as the seat of the Federal Insurance Court (EVG). For the EVG it was a real stroke of luck that the SBB no longer needed their former administration building. The extraordinary expansion of the area of responsibility and the associated expansion of the court's personnel increasingly led to a lack of space. On December 9, 2002, the court was able to start work at the new location.
When the previous administration building was converted into a supreme court judicial building, it was necessary, on the one hand, to meet the spatial and technical requirements of contemporary court operations and, on the other, to take into account the aspects of monument preservation. The interventions on the building itself were limited to what was absolutely necessary (including selective facade renovations, new metal / glass entrance doors, windows with double glazing). Inside, the original substance on the walls, floors and ceilings was restored and, if necessary, supplemented and preserved in cooperation with the preservation authorities. The material and color concept for the newly designed components was derived from the existing substance. A finely tuned lighting concept gives the rooms a pleasant atmosphere. The courtroom, furnished with clearly structured oak desks, was rebuilt.
Since January 1, 2007, the day the EVG merged with the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, the Federal Supreme Court's building has served as the location for its two social law departments.
literature
- Documentation for the opening ceremony of the Federal Insurance Court on April 11, 2003, published by the Federal Insurance Court, Lucerne, SBB AG Immobilien, Region South, Lucerne, the Federal Office for Buildings and Logistics, Berne, and Peter Affentranger Architects, Lucerne.
- Gotthard Railway Archive: Volumes 37 and 38.
- Schweizerische Bauzeitung, January 4, 1890
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 3 ′ 18 " N , 8 ° 18 ′ 43.1" E ; CH1903: six hundred sixty-six thousand three hundred and fifty-four / 211921