Wellenberg (tower)
The Wellenberg tower was probably part of the early fortification of the city Zurich . It stood between today's Münsterbrücke and the Quaibrücke at the height of the Schiffländeplatz in the Limmat and could only be reached by boat.
history
There is no written evidence of the construction of the massive tower. Johann Jacob Wagner vom Wellenberg wrote in Mercurius Helveticus, which appeared between 1684 and 1701:
"" ... the water tower, as the wave mountain is now called and which is a prison ... This was a Pharos (lighthouse) in the times of the Romans, that is such a tower, on which a large light was placed to protect them at night Assign the rhinestones and opportunity to seafarers. »"
However, this statement has no historical basis. The tower was probably built in connection with the first city fortifications in the second half of the 13th century to secure the uppermost Limmat area.
The name Wellenberg is said to go back to an original owner, Ritter Wello, or to the first prominent prisoner, Ulrich von Wellenberg. He lived at Wellenberg Castle above Felben-Wellhausen and worked as a robber baron . As revenge for the repeated attacks on Zurich merchants, the castle was stormed and burned down in 1258 on the orders of Rudolf von Habsburg by a Zurich force. Ulrich von Wellenberg and his two nephews were taken prisoner, taken to Zurich and imprisoned in Wellenberg until the original feud was carried out.
Its function as a prison is mentioned for the first time in the letter of judgment from 1304, in which the then Zurich city clerk Nikolaus Mangold compiled the most important laws of the city of Zurich in a book.
In 1536 the tower seems to have been renovated on a larger scale. In 1778 a front building with two interrogation rooms was added on the north side. During the occupation by French troops in 1789/99, the tower served as a prison for disciplinary punishments. In 1799 most of the tower burned out due to the carelessness of some detainees. It remained in ruins for a few years until it was roofed and repaired again in 1804. The extensive conversion of the Oetenbach monastery into a cantonal penal institution in the years 1830–34 made the Wellenberg redundant as a prison. He also disrupted the flow of traffic on the water. In 1835 it was handed over to the merchants and demolished in December 1837.
Before it was demolished, the Wellenberg was open to all interested parties for a while. Stones from the tower were used to build the quay and the cathedral bridge, which was inaugurated on August 20, 1838. Fireworks were set off on the foundations of the Wellenberg that were still in place. The tower was documented by David Nüscheler and Franz Hegi before it was demolished .
Building description
According to various representations before 1800, the tower had three floors with nine prison rooms, including two "vaults" on the ground floor and a "block house" in the attic; it was covered with a pointed pyramid roof. In the early 19th century, two rooms could be heated. Illustrations that were made after the fire of 1803 show it with four floors and a flatter hipped roof.
In Winterthur's house friend from 1840, the height of the tower is given as 50 feet , which corresponds to about 15 meters. Length and width should each be 30 feet, i.e. 9 meters. The wall thickness tapered upwards from a remarkable 8 feet (2.4 m) to 5 feet (1.5 meters) under the roof. Up to a height of 2.5 meters, the tower consisted of massive ashlar stones, further up rubble stones will have been used. The roof of the wave mountain was covered with wooden shingles.
According to the family friend , the prisoners in the vaults on the first floor could hardly stand upright. The only food there was water and bread, while the prisoners in the upper rooms received a warm meal two or three times a day. The small wooden cage in the attic, which was also used to hold unruly prisoners, was not often used. With a goods elevator, loads could be lifted to the upper floors. On the first floor there was a large wooden post to which prisoners could be tied. "Nothing was saved to ensure both the safety and health of the prisoners," writes the family friend .
Lower cells, posts, the goods elevator at the top of the beam
One of the better cells with a bed and a toilet
Cell on the first floor
The log house in the attic
Inmates
Prominent prisoners in the Wellenberg were the mayor Hans Waldmann in 1489 , in 1350 after the night of the murder of Zurich Count Johann II (Habsburg-Laufenburg) , Baron Johannes von Bonstetten , in 1526 the Baptist Felix Manz and the Zurich pastor and statistician Johann Heinrich Waser (1742 –1780), who was beheaded after a controversial trial.
According to old state archivist Otto Sigg (2012) , a total of 79 people were executed for witchcraft in Zurich between 1487 and 1701 during the witch hunt. For some of these cases, Sigg cites transcripts of the interrogations in Wellenberg, which were often brought about using stretching torture .
literature
- Christine Barraud Wiener, Peter Jezler, with the collaboration of Regine Abegg, Roland Böhmer and Karl Grunder: The City of Zurich I. City in front of the Wall, medieval fortifications and the Limmatraum (= The Art Monuments of the Canton of Zurich. New Edition. Volume I). Edited by the Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Wiese, Basel 1999, ISBN 3-909164-70-6 , p. 121 f.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Turicum , Vitudurum , Iuliomagus . Werdverlag Zurich 1988, p. 50.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Christine Barraud Wiener, Peter Jezler, with the collaboration of Regine Abegg, Roland Böhmer and Karl Grunder: The city of Zurich I. City in front of the wall, medieval fortifications and the Limmatraum (= the art monuments of the canton of Zurich. New Edition. Volume I). Edited by the Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Wiese, Basel 1999, ISBN 3-909164-70-6 , p. 121 f.
- ↑ a b course through Zurich
- ^ Letter of judgment
- ↑ Thomas Germann: Zurich in Time Lapse ( Memento of the original from January 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Volume 2, pp. 34, 46, Werd Verlag, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-85932-322-9
- ↑ Thomas Germann: Zurich in Time Lapse ( Memento of the original from January 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Volume 2, p. 44
- ↑ a b c Hausfreund, Winterthur 1840.
- ↑ Waser ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Otto Sigg, witch trials with death sentence: judicial murders of the guild city of Zurich; of the evil spirit in the city and country of Zurich and in the Aargau basement office; Documentation on the 79 so-called witch trials in the territory of the city of Zurich, which ended with a death sentence, 1487 - 1701; based on sources from the Zurich State Archives . 2nd edition, Offizin, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-907496-79-4 . ( 1st edition, Frick 2012 , ISBN 978-3-9523685-8-9 ). "Once the suspects had been transferred to Zurich by the provincial and senior bailiffs and imprisoned in the Wellenberg tower, rarely also in the new tower, the two so-called descendants (from investigating, investigating), sometimes also the regionally competent senior bailiffs, began theirs mostly from Marter to conduct interviews. " (P. 10). see also: Helene Arnet, Memorial to the Zurich Victims of Witch Persecution , Tages-Anzeiger , November 5, 2013.
Coordinates: 47 ° 22 '7.5 " N , 8 ° 32' 33.5" E ; CH1903: 683388 / 247020