Niederdorf (City of Zurich)

View from the Lindenhof to the Limmat, Limmatquai and Niederdorf

The Zurich Niederdorf (in the vernacular Dörfli or Niederdörfli ) is part of the old town of Zurich . It extends from the Central to the Stüssihofstatt. The Niederdorf is located in the City Hall district and thus belongs to urban district 1 of the city of Zurich. The Niederdorf in Zurich is closely connected with the Oberdorf, which lies between Bellevue or Rämistrasse and Niederdorf and which many visitors incorrectly attribute to Niederdorf.

The Niederdorf is primarily known as an entertainment district. In addition to countless bars and restaurants, there are also cinemas, shops and clubs.

location

Stüssihofstatt , on the left the guild house "zur Schneidern" (house "Königstuhl"), on the far right the former Johanniter restaurant

Guild House "zur Schmiden"

In the vernacular, Niederdorf often refers to the entire area that extends from Central in the north to Bellevue in the south, where it is bordered by Rämistrasse. Correctly, the Stüssihofstatt north of the Grossmünster is the southern boundary of the actual Niederdorf.

The Niederdorf lies between the Limmatquai in the west and the Seilergraben in the east. The most important streets in this area are Niederdorfstrasse, Rindermarkt and Neumarkt as well as Marktgasse.

traffic

Like the parallel Limmatquai, Niederdorfstrasse and its extensions are closed to car traffic. Most of the cross streets are out of the question for a passage due to their width. Individual alleys are passable during the day, cordoned off at night and accessible to residents by car. The road that borders Niederdorf to the east, the Seilergraben , directs car traffic around the Niederdorf. Tram 3 and bus 31 of the VBZ go here . Tram lines 4 and 15 run on Limmatquai. Other tram lines stop at the Central transport hub . The next train stations are the main train station and the Stadelhofen train station .

offer

Cinemas

Altogether there are six cinemas of different types in Niederdorf. The arthouse cinemas Alba, Movie 1 & 2 as well as North-South (1935–2011) show studio films and low-budget productions . The listed Alba has been located in the theater of the hotel with theater that was built seven years earlier since 1958. The Kitag's Frosch cinema shows Hollywood films and studio films. The cinema offering was supplemented by the Stüssihof erotic cinema until the end of 2012. The former Kitag-Kino Academy was closed at the end of 2006 and was first converted into a bar with a club , then into a shoe shop. The Kino Academy was previously called Wellenberg like the hotel in the same building. The wave mountain was the setting in the Swiss feature film Polizischt Wäckerli .

The Radium cinema at Mühlegasse 5 opened in 1907 and was one of the first permanent cinemas in Switzerland. It was the oldest cinema in the country and one of the oldest in all of Europe. For many years, the Radium was known as a revolver kitchen because of the western films it had played, later a reprise site, and in the meantime film podium for the city of Zurich, before it functioned as a post-theater for Commercio-Movie AG in the 1980s and 1990s. The radium had room for 118 people. From 1994 to 2008 the Radium was a porn cinema , at the end of June 2008 it was closed. In 2009, during extensive renovation work on the medieval property, remains of the wall paintings of the original cinema equipment from 1907 came to light.

Bars

There are many small and large bars in Niederdorf. Most bars have outdoor seating in the summer.

Restaurants

In addition to many small snack bars, there are also numerous restaurants in Niederdorf .

Hotels

There are only a few hotels in Niederdorf. The oldest and the youngest hotel operations are centrally located on Hirschenplatz. The hotel «Hirschen» is considered to be the oldest and has been offering its guests rooms since the 14th century. The youngest hotel in Niederdorf is the “Wellenberg” hotel, which was opened in January 1990 by the Scotoni family. It was built in the 1940s and is considered the last new building in Zurich's old town.

history

In 1280 or 1286 a conflagration destroyed the houses from Niederdorf to Oberdorf. The arsonist is said to have been the baker Wackerbold. He had been caught making bread that was too light and was put in the humiliation basket at the male house as a punishment. In revenge, he filled his house with wood, set a fire one night in a strong wind, and disappeared.
1876 broke the Niederdorf a cholera - epidemic , which also spilled over to other parts of the city.