Wil ZH

ZH is the abbreviation for the Canton of Zurich in Switzerland and is used to avoid confusion with other entries of the name Wil .

Wil
State :	Switzerland
Canton :	Zurich (ZH)
District :	Bulach
BFS no. :	0071
Postal code :	8196
Coordinates :	680 395  /  273 373 coordinates: 47 ° 36 '22 "  N , 8 ° 30' 28"  O ; CH1903:  six hundred eighty thousand three hundred and ninety-five  /  two hundred seventy-three thousand three hundred and seventy-three
Height :	406  m above sea level M.
Height range :	353–554 m above sea level M.
Area :	8.94  km²
Residents:	1425 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	143 inhabitants per km²
Proportion of foreigners : (residents without citizenship )	10.8% (December 31, 2018)
Website:	www.wil-zh.ch
Location of the municipality

Wil is a municipality in the district of Bülach in the canton of Zurich in Switzerland .

coat of arms

Blazon

An upright silver ploughshare in red

geography

Wil is in the Rafzerfeld . The northern municipal border forms part of the state border with Germany . 54% of the municipality's area is used for agriculture, 31% is forested, 4% is used for transport and 10.5% is settlement area.

population

• Population density: 142.8 inh / km ²
• Denomination: 59.7% Protestant Reformed , 14.1% Roman Catholic , 26.2% other or no denomination (status: 2010)

economy

Important branches of business in Wil are agriculture, viticulture and gravel extraction.

In 1674, the city of Zurich had the vineyards measured by Johann Rudolf Werdmüller. With 17.5 hectares, the largest vineyard area is still “Im Berg” today, which has hardly changed since 1674. In addition, the vineyards “in der Halde” and “in der Bürglen” were able to hold up. The vineyards "in der Steige", "in the Buchelooer Halde" and "auf des Klein Joge Buck" (today: Fasnachtsbuck), however, have disappeared today.

From the middle of the 17th century onwards, straw weaving was widespread in Wil. With the opening of Heinrich Ritz's hat factory in Hüntwangen, the home industry quickly declined. In 1927 the hat factory bought home-woven hats for the last time.

history

There is evidence of a road from Roman times.

The first documented mention of Wil is proven to be in 1216. The name is probably derived from the Latin villa for manor and manor house, but has not been proven. The arbitration award written on July 16, 1216 by Bishop Konrad is the oldest document on which the place name appears. It is written in Latin and deals with a dispute between the Johanniter von Bubikon and the Benedictine von St. Johann im Thurtal. It mentions a people priest Albert von Wil (Albertus, plebanus de Wile). At the same time, this award documents that Wil was an independent parish as early as 1216.

The parish church was probably a foundation of the Baron von Tengen, who was the largest landowner in Rafzerfeld at the time. In addition to the town of Eglisau, the Tengensche house also owned the church set for Wil, Bülach and Kloten.

Aerial photo (1958)

Between 1259 and 1407 a ministerial family "von Wil" of Baron von Tengen is documented. This is most likely to have lived in the castle on the Holbuckrain. The hill is located northwest of the village of Wil and is also known as the castle, although the "Schnitzberg" or "Schnetzburg" festivities have gone. Since only the moat that was still visible could be found, it is assumed that it was a wooden castle.

In the Middle Ages, the Habsburg-Laufenburgs and later their successors, the Klettgau Counts von Sulz from Tiengen (Upper Rhine) , exercised both rule and high jurisdiction.

In 1651, Zurich acquired the High Court of Justice. Wil took over the Reformation in 1523, after which the people of Zurich appointed the pastor and governor.

In 1798 and in the Napoleonic Wars, the French, Austrians and Russians occupied Wil.

On February 22nd, 1944, a house outside the village was bombed, killing all 8 people who were at lunch.

Village fires

The village of Wil was hit by major fires several times in the 17th century.

The best known is the fire on Carnival in 1619, because Karl Biedermann used it in a literary dialect poem. The exact date can no longer be determined, because the only dated letter is dated February 19, 1619, but was written a few days after the fire because it referred to an incident a few days ago. This is the report from Governor Grebel to the government in Zurich. In it he describes that a total of 40 roofs with 60 households were completely burned down. The other surviving letter from Pastor Fries is not dated and also does not contain the date of the fire. Like the Vogt's letter, this also includes the cause of the fire: that at two o'clock in the afternoon someone fired a musket in front of his house, whereupon the roof caught fire. The pastor wrote of 45 roofs and 62 households, and a total of 275 people were directly affected and lost their homes. The church and the rectory were spared. The difference in the houses and households in the two letters may well be that the Vogt only recorded the total losses. But the fire did not claim any deaths. The subsequent collection for the benefit of the fire victims by the Zurich church brought in 2,400 guilders.

In 1623 six households were left homeless by a fire, whereupon a fire letter was issued. On the night of May 11th to May 12th 1642 it burned again. This time 24 houses (only houses, not barns) were affected. In 1654 some houses and the church tower burned down. In 1694 6 houses burned again. In all of these 17th century fires, there were no fatalities. The only victims in a fire in Wil were in 1650, when a mother burned to death with her child.

Attractions

The old church in Wil, which was demolished in 1860, is based on a drawing by Ludwig Schulthess from 1840.

The church in Wil is a new building from 1975, which was designed by the architect Bitterli from Zurich after the decision on January 29, 1970 not to renovate the church from 1869, but to replace it. In contrast to 1869, when the new building was built by Heinrich Bräm on the Rebhügel next to the old church and the latter was only demolished afterwards, this time the new church was built at the same location after the old one was demolished.

The parish of Wil is the fourth oldest parish in the Zürcher Unterland, as it has been documented since at least 1216. Only the parishes of Bülach (811), Lufingen (1178) and Kloten (1188) are verifiably older.

The rectory on Oberdorfstrasse was built in 1561.

In the village center there are still a number of half-timbered buildings from the 18th century.

politics

Mayor is Peter Graf (as of 2017).

From 1803 to 1863 the number of councilors was three people (president and two members), from 1863 five people (president and four members). The mayor has been elected by the community itself since 1870. Before that, the municipality submitted a proposal for two to the district council, which selected the one that was acceptable to it.

The first municipal code was introduced in 1844. This was revised in 1862, 1867, 1877, 1887, 1901, 1928, 1955 and 1964.

Personalities

• Karl Biedermann (1824–1894), the dialect poet, was born in Winterthur and grew up in Pfungen, but lived in Wil from October 1850 and in 1876 acquired Wil's citizenship. He was also a merchant, and his mainstay was the straw hat trade with his company "Charles Biedermann, Manufacture de paille".

photos

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  Entrance to the village of Wil ZH

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  Church of Wil ZH

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  Church of Wil ZH

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  Restaurant stars in Wil ZH

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  Village fountain

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  Full load

literature

• Hermann Fietz: The art monuments of the canton of Zurich, Volume II: The districts of Bülach, Dielsdorf, Hinwil, Horgen and Meilen. (= Art Monuments of Switzerland. Volume 15). Edited by the Society for Swiss Art History GSK. Bern 1943. DNB 365803049 .
• Wil, the story of a farming village on the Rafzerfeld. Published by the political community Wil / ZH 1993 (no ISBN)

Web links

Commons : Wil ZH  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the municipality of Wil ZH
• Statistical data on the municipality of Wil
• Ueli Müller: Wil ZH. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Permanent and non-permanent resident population by year, canton, district, municipality, population type and gender (permanent resident population). In: bfs. admin.ch . Federal Statistical Office (FSO), August 31, 2019, accessed on December 22, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Data on the resident population by home, gender and age (community profile). Statistical Office of the Canton of Zurich, accessed on December 22, 2019 . 
3. ^ Wil, the story of a farming village on the Rafzerfeld, page 342
4. ↑ Wil, the story of a farming village on the Rafzerfeld, pages 187–188
5. ↑ Wil, the story of a farming village on the Rafzerfeld, pages 188-190