Raceway gate
The Rennwegtor in Zurich was part of the second city fortification on the left bank . It stood at today's corner of Rennweg - Bahnhofstrasse and secured access to the city for passenger and vehicle traffic coming from the west and south. The Rennwegtor was the only passable access to the small or lesser Zurich, the district to the left of the Limmat .
history
Raceway gate
The Rennweg gate appears for the first time in the documents in 1340; a night watchman is mentioned. An epitaph embedded in the city wall at the gate also indicates that it was built in the 14th century . After the Jews were expelled from the city shortly after 1400, these were considered public property and were often used as building materials. At that time the gate consisted of a rectangular tower crowned with battlements with a pyramid roof and notches in the facade. Next to the main tower, a second tower stood as the western corner point of the fortification, which protruded only a little beyond the city wall. Between the towers, the street led through a round arched portal into the city. The chronicle of Gerold Edlibach around 1500 shows the two towers with the kennel-like porch, which partly lay over the frogs' pit.
During the Old Zurich War , the gate was reinforced by a wooden bulwark and guarded by a "captain with assigned people" (35 men) and four riflemen. On July 22nd, 1443 the victorious Confederates pushed through the Rennweg gate after the battle of St. Jakob an der Sihl . The gatekeeper's wife, Anna Ziegler, saved the city by lowering the portcullis just in time. In the tax register of 1467 there is the entry “Alt Ziegler sin wip gratis”: As a thank you for her courageous act, the taxes were waived.
The Rennweg gate depicted by Gerold Edlibach , around 1500
At the beginning of the 16th century
After the battle of St. Jakob an der Sihl
Interior view of the Rennweg gate based on a drawing by Johann Konrad Werdmüller, around 1860/70
Rennweg bulwark
In 1520, the council decided to replace the old gate with a prestigious new building, just like the people of Zurich had seen during the Milan Wars. The council sent the builders Felix Grebel and Georg Göldi to Milan to make drawings of the fort there . Even if such towers are not to be found in the Milan fort, the two apparently brought back the motif of a large round corner bastion with which the gate should be flanked.
Mayor Felix Schmid laid the foundation stone on April 25, 1521; the year was stamped on the north side of the gateway. On July 29, 1522, the city gate with the small bastion and the bridge were ready. The stork owner Rudolf Bucher drove the first wagon with 134 sheaves of grain for the abbess of the Fraumünster through the gate.
The large roundabout with arched wall crown and tiled roof and the northern flank facing Oetenbach were completed in mid-October 1524; the total construction costs were 16,407 pounds, 5 shillings and 3 hellers. The diameter was 21.3 meters, the height 22.2 meters. A cannon hole was set into the wall perpendicular to the driveway, and the flanks were also covered by the same.
A stone crucifix was attached to the outside of the tower so that those condemned to death, who were led through the Rennweg gate to the place of execution, could turn around again and cast a comforting look at the crucified: “Have a hüpsch steini cruzifix like our original image he is hanging on the crütz, in the tower Gehouwen, when the poor evils, who should be killed, are led out there ... "
After the Reformation , the crucifix was replaced by the Zurich coat of arms, which in turn was chiseled away during the Revolution in 1798; what remained was the empty frame.
The guard's apartment, which was furnished in 1525, was cremated by a lightning strike after just one year, but was quickly rebuilt. From the middle of the 16th century the gate had to be open and manned day and night. The wooden bridge in front of the bulwark was replaced by a stone bridge in 1789.
use
Initially, the armory used the wide and deep spaces of the roundabout to store bombs, pitch wreaths, lime pots and stone balls . In 1624 it was converted into a magazine for sulfur and gunpowder. In the 19th century the room was divided with a wooden floor. The lower room served as a cellar, the upper room as a storage place for furniture and objects that could be saved in the event of a fire.
A tunnel led under the Rennwegtor through which spring water was directed from Albisrieden into the Lower City.
Bell jar
In 1675 the citizens of the Rennwegtor, the Werdmühle and the Sihl collected money so that a little tower with a little bell could be placed on the tower ; the Froschauer family's paper mill devoured the ringing of the bells of St. Peter with its irrepressible noise . So 163 guilders, 26 shillings and one heller came together. The desired roof turret was built and fitted with a bell. In 1789 the bell was cast in a new one; it bore the inscription "Johannes Fuessli poured me 1789". After the raceway gate was demolished, the bell was placed in the newly built turret of the Oetenbach prison , and after it was demolished in the winter of 1902/02 it was sent to the city. Today the bell stands next to the city model by Hans Langmack in the city archive on Rindermarkt.
cancellation
The bulwark hampered construction in the mid-19th century; above all, it stood in the way of the planned course of the lower part of Bahnhofstrasse . In 1865 the demolition began despite loud opposition. The votes that wanted to keep the gate in the interests of art and patriotic history were overruled by the city council, which wanted a generous solution to the Bahnhofstrasse project . Since the massive construction turned out to be far more resistant than calculated, the demolition work dragged on for around two years; the costs for this far exceeded the construction costs. Salomon Vögelin , who grew up in the Rennweg district himself, wrote: “... the last city gate that was still standing had to give way in 1867. The demolition showed the strength of the walls, which mocked all calculations. ”Remains of the bulwark remained visible until 1873.
In 1997, during work on the sewer system, the remains of the old staircase in the basement of the bulwark came to light. They have been covered again and are not accessible.
1865, shortly before the demolition
During the demolition in 1865
Location today
literature
- Christine Barraud Wiener, Peter Jezler: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kantons Zürich, Stadt Zürich Volume I , Wiese Verlag, Basel 1999, pp. 118 ff, 137ff
- Walter Baumann: The Rennweg Quarter , Orell Füssli, Zurich 1988
- Rennweg-Quartier-Verein: Lecture The Rennwegthor and the redesign of the Rennweg ; Zurich 1891
- Zurich Calendar 1880, pp. 9–12
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Swiss Lexicon, Vol. 10, Zurich 1756, pp. 632–634
- ↑ Christine Barraud Wiener, Peter Jezler: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kantons Zürich, Stadt Zürich Volume I , p. 118
Coordinates: 47 ° 22 '26.4 " N , 8 ° 32' 18.8" E ; CH1903: 683070 / 247599