Town Hall (Schwyz)

The town hall on the main square in Schwyz

The town hall of Schwyz is a listed parliament and court building. It is known for the historicist facade painting by Ferdinand Wagner from 1891. Like the baroque parish church of St. Martin and the hotel "Wysses Rössli", the town hall is on the main square in the center of Schwyz.

history

Nothing is known about the appearance of the first Schwyz town hall, which existed in the Middle Ages and which was mentioned around 1314 in connection with the Schwyz attack on Einsiedeln Abbey. In the middle of the 16th century , a later building was built in the «Common Löbl. Confederation Chronicle »of Johannes Stumpf and« Cosmographia »illustrated.

The town hall was rebuilt between 1591 and 1595 by the Lucerne stonemasons and master builders Anton Ulrich and Melchior Rufiner. Some inscriptions from this construction period are still preserved on the ground floor and first floor. The town hall was the meeting place for the small and grand councils and the court. There was also a dance hall, a grain chute and salt chamber, dungeon and prison cells. The woman's apartment , who also performed manual tasks, was also in the town hall.

New building after the fire of 1642

On April 20, 1642 a total of 47 houses, including the town hall and the church, fell victim to a fire. Construction of the new town hall began just a year later. Master builder Melchior Katzrauer from the Bregenzerwald tried to restore the almost square foundation walls (19.85 by 19.75 m) of the building from 1594. "You can still see traces of fire on the huge pillars in the current cantonal council hall, the former dance hall."

The paneling in the courtroom, the small council chamber, and in the conference room, the large council chamber, essentially comes from the time after the new building and is the work of local craftsmen, who were named in wood. In the courtroom there is a judge's chair with a canopy .

Remodeling from 1777

Carlo Andrea Galetti from Como was commissioned to remodel the town hall (1777–79). He replaced the previous hipped roof with the still existing mansard roof . A turret was built at the top of the roof gable, in which a bell with pictures of the patron saints Martin and Franz Xaver was attached. The bell rang when those sentenced to death were walking to one of the two Schwyz execution sites. With the renovation, the outer facade was also changed.

Exterior renovation from 1891

The Cantonal Council of Schwyz has met in the town hall since the 19th century . A member of the Cantonal Council, Adelrich Benziger from Einsiedeln , suggested in 1890 that the two main facades should be decorated in a picturesque way “with a view to the 600-year commemoration of the first union of the Drei Waldstätte”. From September 1890, the Munich history painter Ferdinand Wagner created several depictions of Schwyz history on the west and north facades of the town hall for CHF 20,000. Shortly before the 600th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation, the work was completed on July 18, 1891.

The north facade, u. a. with the Stauffacherin and the delivery of the letter of freedom to Faenza 1240
The west facade, u. a. with the Rütli oath and the Battle of Morgarten (1315)
The depiction of the Battle of Morgarten in detail
The unpainted south facade of the town hall