St. Jakob an der Birs
St. Jakob an der Birs or St. Jakob for short is a historical quarantine settlement near Basel , the beginnings of which go back to at least the turn of the 11th to the 12th century. Originally located in front of the city, St. Jakob is now part of Basel's St. Alban district . The infirmary , first mentioned in the 13th century , where Basel citizens suffering from leprosy (skin infections such as leprosy in particular ) were housed, forms the former settlement center and has been included in the cantonal register of monuments in Basel-Stadt . In 1444 the battle of St. Jakob an der Birs took place here.
Location and place name
St. Jakob is located on the St. Alban pond and the Birs , at a river crossing of the old connecting road from Alsace via Basel to Hauenstein and further into the Swiss plateau . A bridge is mentioned for the first time in 1102/03, but it was more likely to have been a pedestrian walkway. In 1425, the city of Basel, which had acquired the ford and bridge rights in 1295 from the Counts of Frohburg (the monastery of St. Alban exercised the manorial rule, the city had jurisdiction from 1383), left a stone bridge a little further downstream that was suitable for transporting goods to build. This may have been the reason to give up the original name Birsbruck or similar for the place as no longer appropriate and to replace it with St. Jakob (first documented in 1418 as "ze sant Jacob an der Birsse" ).
history
Middle Ages and Early Modern Times
Presumably there was already a customs house at the time the bridge was first mentioned, as the Birs formed the border between Sisgau and Sundgau , and - considering the remoteness of the place and the not harmless river crossing - one dedicated to St. Chapel dedicated to Jacob , patron saint of travelers. Other cartridges that were venerated here were St. Barbara as patroness against thunderstorms and St. Wendelin as patron of the shepherds. The municipal infirmary for housing the lepers comes from the second half of the 13th century. Originally, it was located as part of the city hospital founded in 1265, but the "leprosi apud Birsebruge" existed as early as 1260. By 1295 at the latest, the hospital's infirmary had been relocated to St. Jakob, its administration appears in 1297 as the "procuratores leprosorum residentium" at the Birsigbrugge ” . The lepers' settlement enclosed by a wall was allowed to leave selected sick people ( special sick people ) to collect alms . Making it possible for the sick to beg was also the reason why such infirmaries were built near traffic axes.
The infirmary only accepted Basel citizens who also had to pay a purchase fee. The day-to-day operations were financed by foundations and daily collections of funds. The infirmary was run under the supervision of the Basel hospital. The gubernator or nurse of the infirmary also took over the administration of the Birsbrücke from 1328 and was subsequently also called Birsmeister . A people priest provided the spiritual service in St. Jacob . The infirmary owned extensive property and enjoyed some economic success until the 18th century.
The leprosy disappeared with the end of the 16th century, almost all of the series of chronic widespread diseases. The last case was treated in the infirmary at the end of the 17th century, and it became an asylum for the elderly and the permanently ill (physical disabilities, mental disorders). The name of the infirmary fell out of use due to the different usage, a seal from 1685 said that St. Jakob's church was used . (St. Jacob appears for the first time on the seal of the infirmary in 1494.)
The disappearance of the leprosy manifested itself in new buildings that were not used for health care. 1548 the guild of Basel Weber bought the hospice a place to plant a nut press from that was already replaced in 1585 and again in 1673, a second Walke was 1742. 1625 decided the city, a fountain machinery a 1640 water supply and brick cottage to build. In 1677 the infirmary was attached to the Basel orphanage as a branch. From then on, the respective tenant of the St. Jakob inn was also the customs officer, a personal union that only ended in 1847/48 with the establishment of the Swiss federal state and the abolition of the intercantonal customs borders. St. Jakob also had a number of economic buildings for the infirmary's farm , for example a sheep farm . The ensemble of buildings gradually gave St. Jakob the name of a village .
In the 18th century, the Basel Society discovered the infirmary with inn and farm as a rural, idyllic excursion destination, where the wine grown there, nicknamed Schweizerblut (in memory of those who fell in the battle of St. Jakob), together with the people in Birs and St. Albanteich caught noses was consumed. The church was also popular for holding weddings.
19th century to the present
In 1836, Christoph Merian bought the now unprofitable St. Jakob, with the exception of the church, from the orphanage in order to round off his property in Brüglingen . He entered into the condition "to keep an inn at St. Jakob at all times". In 1837 he acquired the fountain and brickworks, and in 1841/57 the cloth mills. After the death of Christoph Merian in 1858 and that of his widow Margaretha Merian in 1886, the properties near St. Jakob were transferred to the Christoph Merian Foundation , which initially had emergency apartments set up in the infirmary for large families. The chapel fell from the orphanage to the state in 1891.
The industrialization of the mid-19th century led in and near St. Jakob for the construction of factories that the hydropower took advantage of St. Alban pond, and housing estates for workers. The village urbanized and in 1927 the farm near St. Jakob was given up. In 1865 St. Jakob was attached to the Basel Minster as a subsidiary parish . The 20th century brought far-reaching topographical changes due to the extensive construction of railways and roads (relocation of St. Jakobs-Strasse, construction of Nationalstrasse 2, now A2 ) and the construction of the St. Jakob sports center . The remaining historical buildings near St. Jakob form the infirmary, the chapel, the inn (original customs house) and the well.
Historic Buildings
Chapel / church
The oldest chapel , of which the year of construction is unknown, was probably a small prayer house for travelers to ask and thank before and after crossing the multi-armed and often tearing Birs. With the relocation of the infirmary, an enlargement or a new building into a small single-nave church can be assumed. A partial new building was necessary in 1414 due to the devastation of a Birsh flood, a restoration after the destruction by fire in the battle of St. Jakob an der Birs. Several renovations (such as 1601 and 1700) followed until 1894, when the church was completely demolished in view of the increase in the local population and was rebuilt and larger until 1895. Of the historical structure, only the choir (i.e. its cross vault and triumphal arch ) and the west and side walls were reused. The medieval furnishings, especially the wall paintings, were completely lost, the baroque pulpit was preserved. The ossuary serves as a sacristy and the cemetery has become a garden.
Customs house / tavern
An at least wooden customs house near St. Jakob must have stood on the oldest medieval pedestrian walkways over the Birs. It is also documented as an inn early (1526). In this function it served as an important source of income for St. Jakob, and it was stipulated that in the nearby Walke there was no "Gasterey, nor a pub to try". After the infirmary was taken over by the orphanage, a significant expansion took place in 1687. In 1891, after consulting with the state archivist Rudolf Wackernagel , historicizing decorations were created for the facades. The new building from 1912/13 and the expansion from 1936/1939 (enlarged and reoriented gardens) brought about radical changes. The name of the historical inn , which emerged during this period , was the result of efforts to preserve the traditional character of the building, at least visually, despite the removal of the old structure. In 1912/13, the external design was retained as a rural inn and the wall paintings that were added in 1891 were copied and reassembled. These paintings also had to be removed and replaced in 1939. Another building renovation followed at the end of the 1970s.
Infirmary
The infirmary was probably created at the end of the 13th century by moving the sick care from the previous building, which was gradually located intra muros due to the city's growth and was therefore no longer tolerated as the residence of the lepers. Like the church, it suffered considerable damage from the battle of St. Jacob and had to be rebuilt. The complex probably consisted of an actual hospital building and the houses of the lepers. Today's complex, a typical late medieval residential building, dates from 1570/71 and is a striking block that is divided into several partial houses and is quite comparable to other public buildings of this time in terms of size and representativeness. There was no actual enclosure wall for the houses, they stood directly on the street. After a number of partial renovations from 1886 onwards, the building known as the “unsanitary cave” was rebuilt in 1945 and 1951–1952 with profound changes inside. Further renovations took place in 1990 and 2000. The partial buildings of the infirmary with the addresses St. Jakobs-Strasse 351 and 355–361 were included in the monument register in 1945 (St. Jakobs-Strasse 351) and 1951/52 (St. Jakobs-Strasse 355–361) taken from Basel-Stadt.
Well
The city of Basel had the well of St. Jakob built in 1625 to utilize the abundant springs there and to feed the wells of the infirmary, tavern and brickworks. From pump house and water tower consisting of the system used, the water force of St. Alba pond for the drive. The pump system was replaced in 1844 and, thanks to several technical innovations (steam and electric machine), ran until 1969 when road works cut off the spring water supply. In 2006 the well was restored and connected to a previously unused source. The well is open to the public and illustrates how a historical water pump works .
Special
St. Jakob an der Birs is not to be confused with St. Jakob an der Sihl, a historic hamlet near Zurich in the area of today's Stauffacher . A mix-up is possible not least because a chapel and an infirmary stood at both locations in the Middle Ages and a battle was fought at both locations as part of the Old Zurich War : On July 22nd, 1443 near St. Jakob an der Sihl , on August 26, 1444 near St. Jakob an der Birs .
literature
- J. Eglin: History of St. Jakob. In: Raurachische Heimatschriften , booklet 6. Lüdin AG, Liestal, 1940.
- Rudolf Riggenbach: Chapel and infirmary of St. Jakob an der Birs. In: Historical and Antiquarian Society of Basel : Commemorative book for the five hundredth anniversary of the Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs from August 26, 1444. Helbing and Lichtenhahn, Basel, 1944, pp. 157–214.
- CH Baer: The art monuments of the canton of Basel-Stadt. Volume 3: The churches, monasteries and chapels - Part one: St. Alban to Charterhouse. Birkhäuser & Cie., Basel, 1941, pp. 389-419.
- Wilhelm Wackernagel: The infirmary at St. Jakob. 21. New Year's Gazette of the GGG , Basel, 1843, pp. 3–25.
- Duncan Hardy: The 1444-5 Expedition of the Dauphin Louis to the Upper Rhine in Geopolitical Perspective. In: Journal of Medieval History. 38.3, 2012, pp 358-387. doi: 10.1080 / 03044181.2012.697051
Web links
Coordinates: 47 ° 33 ' N , 7 ° 37' E ; CH1903: 613 495 / 265709
