Wooden bridge (Baden)
| Wooden bridge | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| use | Pedestrians, cyclists | |
| Crossing of | Limmat | |
| place | Baden AG | |
| construction | Covered bridge | |
| overall length | 39 m | |
| building-costs | 16,284 guilders | |
| start of building | April 1809 | |
| opening | 1810 | |
| construction time | 1 year | |
| planner | Blasius Balteschwiler , Laufenburg AG | |
| location | ||
|
||
The wooden bridge is a bridge in Baden in Switzerland and crosses the Limmat at the narrowest point of the Klus between Schlossberg and Lägern . It is 39 meters long and leads from the old town on the left bank to the governor's castle on the right bank. The covered wooden bridge that exists today has had at least five previous buildings in the same place since the Middle Ages.
Building
The current structure dates from 1810. It rests on abutments from the 17th century, which come from an earlier structure and are made of thick limestone blocks . The river is spanned by a double hanging structure , each with six struts and four tension bolts. The roadway rests on seven beams that are bolted directly to the pairs of pillars. The entire hanging and trussing is covered with shingle-clad boards. Two central semicircular windows and two side arched lights let the daylight shine through. The gable roof is also clad with shingles .
At the west end of the bridge, a life-size sandstone statue of the bridge saint Johannes Nepomuk was erected in 1707 . It comes from an unknown artist , presumably from Zurich , and is the only large sculpture of the high baroque in Baden. It is a gift from the Austrian envoy von Trautmannsdorff, who was then residing in Baden. The original is exhibited today in the governor's palace, the statue on the bridge is a copy.
history
A bridge over the Limmat already existed during the Roman rule , but this was almost a kilometer downstream at the thermal baths of the Aquae Helveticae settlement (in the area of today's Leaning Bridge ). A bridge in the Klus was first mentioned in 1242. This first structure replaced a ferry that had probably been in existence since the 11th century and was also a customs post. Here the roads to Basel , Schaffhausen , Zurich and Bern crossed . Over the centuries, the bridge was destroyed at least four times by floods, ice drifts or armed conflict. Until 1766, when Hans Ulrich Grubenmann built another bridge near Wettingen Abbey , the Baden wooden bridge was the only crossing between Zurich and the mouth of the Limmat near Gibstorf .
At least one of the previous bridges is well documented. A stone pillar built in the middle of the river in the early summer of 1649, which was supposed to replace the less stable wooden supports, sank in the floods after just a month. In October of the same year the city council decided to build a wooden bridge without pillars. He commissioned the builders Hans Schüep and Michael Egger to do this. The bridge was opened after only four months of construction. It existed until June 7, 1799, when General André Masséna had it burned down during the First Battle of Zurich in order to secure the withdrawal of the French troops. A new building was initially out of the question due to the war, which is why they were satisfied with a temporary emergency bridge.
In 1802, project variants for a new building were presented for the first time. Due to financial problems, however, building preparations could only begin five years later. In a project competition in October 1808, the model made by the builder Blasius Balteschwiler from Laufenburg prevailed. Construction began in April 1809 and lasted a year. The costs amounted to 16,284 guilders and were entirely borne by the city.
In 1926 the high bridge was opened around a hundred meters upstream , which completely spans the Limmat valley. This made it possible to block the wooden bridge, which can only be reached via steep and narrow access roads, for motorized through traffic. Since then, the wooden bridge has been used exclusively for pedestrian and bicycle traffic. In 1968 the wooden deck was replaced by a metal grate.
In 1996 the bridge was renovated and the existing carriageway was replaced by a pre-stressed wooden deck (QSX system). The wooden deck was sealed and provided with an asphalt surface.
Baden wooden bridge
Suspended truss of the wooden bridge
literature
- Peter Hoegger: The art monuments of the canton of Aargau . Ed .: Society for Swiss Art History . Volume VI, District of Baden I. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1976, ISBN 3-7643-0782-X , p. 80-86 .
