Town hall (Zofingen)
The town hall of Zofingen in Switzerland is in the center of the old town, at the intersection of Rathausgasse and Engelgasse. It was built at the end of the 18th century and replaced previous buildings from the 15th and 17th centuries, only individual parts of which have been preserved. The early classical building is a listed building and is classified as a cultural asset of national importance .
history
The medieval town hall stood a few meters away by the Tuchlaube. Around 1470 a new building was built at the current location. The exact year of construction is not known, but a document from 1476 describes the earlier building as the "old town hall". In 1482 the archive tower was built on the west facade and has been preserved to this day. A new building was built in 1606 under the direction of Moritz Ringier; The Weibelhaus attached to the archive tower was preserved from this time.
In 1791, Rät und Burger of the city of Zofingen decided to convert the damaged town hall, but then agreed to build a new building again, leaving the rear wing on Engelgasse. Niklaus Emanuel Ringier (1744–1815) designed the new building. The construction work began in 1792 and was completed in 1795, the construction costs amounted to 35,992 guilders . Several planned extensions in the 19th century were ultimately not implemented.
Building
Niklaus Emanuel Ringier based himself on the Bern town hall , but deviated from the pure late Gothic style and designed the Zofingen town hall in the early classicist Louis-Seize style. The three-story building is divided into eleven axes on its main east facade. Rusticated cuboids and arched entrances characterize the ground floor as a base , which is separated from the upper two floors by a cornice . Its facade is divided into three parts by narrow pilasters .
The central axis dominates the main facade. A double flight of stairs with balustrades leads to a high, protruding canopy . This in turn is crowned by a domed tower with a lantern . While the round arches of the windows in the middle part are in harmony with the canopy, the windows have pointed arches on the side axes . At the rear of the main wing, on Engelgasse, there is a two-storey building, under whose gable roof the archive tower and the Weibelhaus are united. The late Gothic house of the butchers' guild from 1602/03 is attached to the north side of the town hall.
literature
- Michael Stettler: The art monuments of the canton of Aargau . Ed .: Society for Swiss Art History . Volume I, districts of Aarau, Kulm, Zofingen. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 1948, p. 369-374 .
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 17 '17.7 " N , 7 ° 56' 46.5" E ; CH1903: 638.4 thousand / 237610