Zunfthaus zur Meisen
The Zunfthaus zur Meisen near the Münsterhof is one of the traditional guild houses in Zurich . It is one of the most historically valuable buildings in the old town .
history
The building was in 1757 in the style of a representative baroque city palace 'as a meeting house of the guild to tits on the left bank of the Limmat built in the immediate vicinity of the Fraumünster . The original "Zunft zum Winlütten" (innkeepers) owned a house on Marktgasse in the late Middle Ages. In the 18th century, this no longer met the requirements of the time, and so the guild had the experienced master builder David Morf (1700–1773) build a rococo palace based on the French model - with a court of honor and an elegant wrought-iron gate. The builders paid particular attention to the interior fittings of the representative building: the ceiling paintings are by Johann Balthasar Bullinger , the tower tiled stoves by Leonhard Locher and Hans Jakob Hofmann and the artistically designed stucco ceilings by the Tyrolean master Johann Schuler. The facade was designed by the sculptor Franz Ludwig Wind in 1755 .
The origins of the Urania observatory go back to a first observatory on the roof of the guild house. From this location the “Astronomical Commission” succeeded for the first time in 1759 in calculating the culminatio solis and thus the exact location of the city of Zurich on the globe.
In the 19th century, Gottfried Keller and Ferdinand Hodler were among the most prominent guests at what was then “Café zur Meisen”; in the 20th century Gustav of Sweden , Winston Churchill , Elisabeth II. and Jimmy Carter stayed in the Meisen guild house. There is still an upscale restaurant in the building today.
Until mid-April 2018, the guild house housed the porcelain and faience collection of the Swiss National Museum . From April 2019 it will be on view again in the National Museum Zurich .
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Individual evidence
- ^ From the speech by Government Councilor Regine Aeppli on the occasion of the inauguration of the renovated Urania observatory in Zurich on May 4, 2007.