Kornhaus (Zurich)
The Kornhaus (later a department store) was a warehouse in the Swiss city of Zurich built between 1616 and 1619 and demolished in 1897 . The equestrian monument of Mayor Hans Waldmann marks his former location on the left bank of the Limmat , in the immediate vicinity of the Fraumünster .
prehistory
As in other cities, the grain trade in Zurich was subject to strict conditions. All grain imported into the city had to be sold in a central market in the Kornhaus . This market was an important source of income for the city authorities: the seller had to pay rent for stored goods and had to pay sales tax on every Malter grain that he sold.
Towards the end of the 16th century, people in Zurich were considering moving the previous granary on Weinplatz , which dates back to the 14th century and had become too small , but they could not agree on a new location. Only after the "Niedere Brücke" ( town hall bridge ) collapsed under a heavy grain wagon on November 3, 1615 and many people fell into the water, efforts were intensified.
planning
A detailed project for a new building was already in place on December 4, 1615, and the council decided on December 13 to build a new grain hall around 250 meters up the Limmat in front of the Fraumünster. The chosen location was well developed: there was a landing stage for ships above and below the planned new building, and the adjacent Münsterplatz offered more space for the wagons than the previous location. The contract was awarded to the city master builder Felix Peyer, who planned and built the building together with master carpenter Hans Horner and the “stone master craftsman” Ulrich Schwyzer. The building was to be 136 Schuh (41 meters) long, 36 Schuh (12 meters) wide, 28 Schuh (8.5 meters) high and on two arches out into the Limmat.
construction
The work on site began in January 1616 with the construction of the water rooms and the laying of the foundation. In the first three weeks, up to 45 day laborers beat and scooped water rooms (water collection basins), while the stonemasons were at work. On April 25, 1617, the arches of the water passages were completed, and in June 1618 the ground floor was paved . In August and October of the same year, the first and second floors were installed. The topping-out ceremony took place on December 12, 1618. In 1619, the master builder from Peyer went to Hans Heinrich Müller, who finished the construction in the same year. On August 24, 1620 the bill was accepted: It amounted to 29,588 pounds, 12 shillings and 2 hellers.
building
In a contemporary description it said: The new building was a splendid building in the right place, just as beautiful as in its external furnishings, its eyelashes and flags and its significant inscriptions, as appropriately arranged in its interior.
The ground floor was intended for the sale of grain, the floor above for a granary. Individual compartments could also be rented. Two watercourses, separated by a wall, ran under the building in the direction of the river and could be navigated by ships. From this canal system, the goods could probably be loaded directly into the building using elevator devices. The outer watercourse opened to the Limmat with two round arches, which are still visible today. The southern entrances were walled up in 1841 at the quay fill, the northern ones have been preserved and were connected to the first yoke of the Münsterbrücke in 1838 .
From the Limmat side, the new Kornhaus appeared as an imposing three-story building in the Renaissance style above the vaults made of ashlars. The gable roof was originally bounded by stepped gables . The functional building also did not do without jewelry : the storeys were separated by profiled cornices and all windows were surrounded by profile frames and, until the early 18th century, with painted ornaments. The great effort involved in painting can be seen from the painter's invoices.
Above the three main entrances on the land side, two boards named the names of the members of the authorities under whose direction the house was built. A third panel reminded of the Deuteronomy , Deut. 28.12 EU , of the blessing that would pour out on those who fear God. Above the central portal was the inscription in a curved banner: FELIX PEYER THE ZIT BAVMEISTER 1618 .
Goods ships could be loaded against the Limmat through two portals and stairs. Since the 1690s the piers at the Cornhaus have been mentioned, which were equipped with devices for transporting loads from the ships to the Kornhaus. On the land side, the wagons were loaded through three entrances. The movement of goods here was so important that in 1668 a mighty canopy was built on the west side against the Fraumünster to protect the goods.
The monumental stone building set an important sign of the growing importance of the authorities as a supervisory authority. In the first decades of the 17th century, the Kornhaus was the only official construction company.
Department store
As early as 1783, as part of a reorganization of the commercial operation, the council decided to move the granary to the “coal gate” at Stadelhofen station and to convert the building into a department store, but in 1789 withdrew the decision. A planned expansion of the space to the west was also not implemented.
In the 1830s, the insufficient space in the department store near the Hottingerturm demanded a solution and on November 21, 1839, the decision was made to move the department store to the Kornhaus near Fraumünster and to build a new granary at Bellevue on today's Sechseläutenwiese . There, on the one hand, access to the lake was guaranteed, and the freer location made it easier for the wagons to get there. The new granary was built by Alois Negrelli in 1838/39 and began operating on May 8, 1840. In 1867 it was converted into a sound hall and demolished in 1896.
The department store, as the Kornhaus was now called, was hardly changed structurally; so two tall windows on the narrow sides were converted into doors. As a result of the embankment of the quay and the new bridge, sales of goods on land gained in importance. In 1850 a wooden warehouse was built on the southern narrow side, but the opening of the Spanish-Brötli-Bahn and the elimination of internal tariffs by the new Customs Act of 1850 deprived the department store of any long-term basis.
In 1859 the department store management was abolished. In 1891 the city council undertook to demolish the building , which had meanwhile been rented to the Nordostbahn , when the new Fraumünsterpost was completed. In 1872 the department store was renovated again on the outside due to an upcoming shooting festival. A renovation project planned for 1892 was no longer carried out and the building began to deteriorate.
The demolition
In connection with the demolition of the Kratzquartier , it was decided in 1891 to demolish the granary. Despite numerous protests from the population, who wanted to keep the house as a counterpart to the town hall on the opposite side of the Limmat for urban planning reasons , the “progressives” won, for whom the free view of the new Fraumünsterpost and the upgrading of the guild house “zur Meise” were more important.
The proposal of the art society to convert the Kornhaus into an art museum did not meet with broad enough approval from the decision-makers who wanted to promote the modernization of the city of Zurich. In 1897 the granary was torn down, which prompted the “Festtagszeitung” to regretfully state: “ Yes, here, for New Zurich's ornament, house sacrifices are unheard of. “The two arches that have survived are the only witnesses to the old granary.
A victim of historicism
The Kornhaus was one of the numerous buildings that fell victim to the expansion of Zurich into a major city at the end of the 19th century. They wanted to renovate the old town, which meant tearing down and rebuilding it according to the taste of historicism . The scratch area between Paradeplatz and Lake Zurich had to give way first , despite resistance during the construction of Bahnhofstrasse ; with him also the buildings of the Fraumünster monastery . Simultaneously with the modernization of Zurich, the longing for the “good old days” arose, to which the bourgeois families of the city erected a monument with the establishment of the Sechseläuten , as a popular counter-movement to the plans of the “progressive”.
gallery
Kornhaus 1770, engraving by Bullinger
Kornhaus 1891
Kornhaus around 1895
Münsterbrücke and department store, around 1896
The Kornhaus with Fraumünster and St. Peter's Church
The cancellation is imminent
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kunstdenkmäler der Schweiz, Volume I, Basel 1999, p. 273 ff
- ↑ Quoted from Paul Guyer (Ed.): Pictures from old Zurich. Public buildings and guild houses based on drawings from around 1700. From Gerold Escher's regimental book . Rohr, Zurich 1954, p. 26
- ↑ Tages-Anzeiger (April 23, 1977): Zurich: Exchange versus building garden by Rolf A. Meyer
- ↑ Source: The former Kratzquartier in Zurich , compiled from the collections of Rolf A. Meyer
literature
- Christine Barraud Wiener, Regine Abegg: The Art Monuments of the Canton of Zurich, City of Zurich Volume II.II, Wiese Verlag, Basel 2003
- Christine Barraud Wiener, Peter Jezler: The Art Monuments of the Canton of Zurich, City of Zurich Volume I , Wiese Verlag, Basel 1999
- Jürg Haefelin: The change from Zürcher Kratz to Stadthausquartier , contained in Zürcher Chronik No. 3, Zurich 1995
- Paul Guyer (Ed.): Pictures from old Zurich. Public buildings and guild houses based on drawings from around 1700. From Gerold Escher's regimental book . Publisher Hans Roth, Zurich 1954
- Städtische Bauverwaltung Zürich (Ed.): Illumination of the project for a new townhouse quarter <Kratzquartier> following the Quai projects , Zürich 1875
- Jürg Fierz (Ed.): Zurich - Who else is there? Orell Füssli Verlag, Zurich 1972
- Thomas Germann: Zurich in Time Lapse , Volumes I and II, Werd-Verlag Zurich, 1997 and 2000
- Beat Haas, Thomas Meyer, Dölf Wild: Almost like in Paris. The redesign of the Kratzquartier around 1880 , Zurich 2001
Coordinates: 47 ° 22 '11.1 " N , 8 ° 32' 31" E ; CH1903: 683 334 / 247131