Lindenhof hill
Encyclopedia
The Lindenhof hill is a moraine
Moraine
A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...

 hill
Hill
A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills often have a distinct summit, although in areas with scarp/dip topography a hill may refer to a particular section of flat terrain without a massive summit A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills...

 and a public square
Public Square
Public Square is the central plaza in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It takes up four city blocks; Superior Avenue and Ontario Street cross through it. Cleveland's three tallest buildings, Key Tower, 200 Public Square and the Terminal Tower, face the square...

 in the historic center of Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

Topography

Lindenhof hill (its northern part is called Sihlbühl) dominates Lindenhof quarter in the district 1 (Altstadt)
Altstadt (Zürich)
Altstadt in the Swiss city of Zürich encompasses the area of the entire historical city before 1893, before the incorporation of what are now districts 2 to 12 into the municipality, over the period 1893 to 1934...

, the historical center of Zurich's Altstadt
Altstadt
Altstadt is the German language word for "old town", meaning "historical city centre within the city wall", in contrast to a Neustadt built outside later....

. To the North, it ends at Uraniastrasse (City police station) and to the South near St. Peter church
St. Peter, Zürich
St. Peter is one of the four main churches of the old town of Zurich, besides Grossmünster, Fraumünster and Predigerkirche.Located next to the Lindenhof hill, site of the former Roman castle, it was built on the site of a temple to Iuppiter. An early church of 10 by 7 metres is archaeologically...

. In the West, the hill is limited by the Bahnhofstrasse, in the East by the Limmat
Limmat
The Limmat is a river in Switzerland. It is the continuation of the Linth river, known as Limmat from the point of effluence from Lake Zurich, in the city of Zurich. From Zurich it flows in a northwesterly direction, after 35 km reaching the river Aare...

 river and the Schipfe
Schipfe
Schipfe is part of the Lindenhof quarter in the district 1 of Zurich, Switzerland.It belongs to the historical parts of the Limmat city, located at the left side of the Limmat river below the Lindenhof hill. The Lindenhof was the site of the Roman settlement , with traces of a hypocaustum excavated...

 quarter.

Lindenhof hill bases on the remains of the last glacial period. The hill and its public square
Public Square
Public Square is the central plaza in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It takes up four city blocks; Superior Avenue and Ontario Street cross through it. Cleveland's three tallest buildings, Key Tower, 200 Public Square and the Terminal Tower, face the square...

 is part of the Linth
Linth
The Linth is a Swiss river starting above Linthal the mountains of Glarus near the Klausen Pass and flowing from there north through the Glarus valley passing Schwanden, where it is joined by its main tributary Sernft, Ennenda, the town of Glarus, Netstal, and Näfels, from where it is channeled to...

 glacier's moraine
Moraine
A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...

s in the area of Zurich. The now largely flattened Lindenhof (428 m ü. M) rises about 25 meters above the Limmat river.

History

At the flat shore of Lake Zurich
Lake Zurich
Lake Zurich is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zurich. It is also known as Lake Zürich and Lake of Zürich. It lies approximately at co-ordinates ....

, we find Neolithic and Bronze Age (4500 to 850 BC) lakeside settlements, such as Kleiner Hafner and Grosser Hafner (both small former islands), near Bauschänzli (Zurich City hall), Alpenpuai (Bürkliplatz) and Lindenhof. Lindenhof was largely surrounded by water: Until the early medieval area, neighboring Münsterhof
Münsterhof (Zürich)
Münsterhof is a town square situated in the Lindenhof quarter, the historical center of Zürich, Switzerland.- Geography :Münsterhof is located in front of the Fraumünster church, to the south of the Lindenhof hill, and is surrounded by medieval buildings, among them the guild houses "zur Waag", the...

 (Fraumünster
Fraumünster
The Fraumünster abbey in Zurich was founded in 853 by Louis the German for his daughter Hildegard. He endowed the Benedictine convent with the lands of Zurich, Uri, and the Albis forest, and granted the convent immunity, placing it under his direct authority.- History :In 1045, King Henry III...

 abbey square) was a swampy, by the Sihl
Sihl
The Sihl is a river of Switzerland. It rises at Drusberg in the Canton of Schwyz. It passes through the Sihlsee near Einsiedeln, and then enters the Canton of Zurich, flowing through the Sihl valley at the foot of the Albis, passing the Sihlwald, the largest remaining deciduous forest of the Swiss...

 river flooded hollow, so that Lindenhof hill was an optimal location for early probably fortified settlements. Middle bronze age (1500 BC) artefacts were found near Limmat (Schipfe
Schipfe
Schipfe is part of the Lindenhof quarter in the district 1 of Zurich, Switzerland.It belongs to the historical parts of the Limmat city, located at the left side of the Limmat river below the Lindenhof hill. The Lindenhof was the site of the Roman settlement , with traces of a hypocaustum excavated...

). For the 1st century BC (La Tène culture
La Tène culture
The La Tène culture was a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where a rich cache of artifacts was discovered by Hansli Kopp in 1857....

) archaeologists found remains of a Celtic settlement, a so called oppidum
Oppidum
Oppidum is a Latin word meaning the main settlement in any administrative area of ancient Rome. The word is derived from the earlier Latin ob-pedum, "enclosed space," possibly from the Proto-Indo-European *pedóm-, "occupied space" or "footprint."Julius Caesar described the larger Celtic Iron Age...

, whose remains were found in archaeological campaigns in the years 1989, 1997, 2004 and 2007 on Lindenhof and Rennweg
Rennweg (Zürich)
Rennweg is a street and a tram stop in the old town of Zurich.In the Middle Ages, it was the main street of the upper town of Zurich, leading from the fortified Rennweg gate passing below the Lindenhof hill towards the town hall....

.

15 BC, Augustus' stepsons Drusus and Tiberius (later Emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....

 14 to 37 AD) integrated the territory on the left side of Lake Zurich into the Roman provinces Raetia
Raetia
Raetia was a province of the Roman Empire, named after the Rhaetian people. It was bounded on the west by the country of the Helvetii, on the east by Noricum, on the north by Vindelicia, on the west by Cisalpine Gaul and on south by Venetia et Histria...

 and Germania Superior
Germania Superior
Germania Superior , so called for the reason that it lay upstream of Germania Inferior, was a province of the Roman Empire. It comprised an area of western Switzerland, the French Jura and Alsace regions, and southwestern Germany...

. Several stone buildings are known for the Roman period
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 located on and surrounding the hill. It was part of the small vicus
Vicus (Rome)
In ancient Rome, the vicus was a neighborhood. During the Republican era, the four regiones of the city of Rome were subdivided into vici. In the 1st century BC, Augustus reorganized the city for administrative purposes into 14 regions, comprising 265 vici. Each vicus had its own board of...

 Turicum
Turicum
Turicum was a Swiss automobile manufactured between 1904 and 1906 in Zurich, 1907 till 1912 in Uster. Turicum is the Latin name of Zurich....

 on both sides of the Limmat besides a Roman bridge, near the present Rathausbrücke. Turicum, Zurich's Roman and maybe Celtic name, is engraved on a 2nd century tombstone of a little boy, found on May 15, 1747, referring to the Roman STA(tio) TUR(i)CEN(sis). The tombstone is located in the Swiss National Museum
Swiss National Museum
The Swiss National Museum — part of the Musée Suisse Group, itself affiliated with the Federal Office of Culture — is one of the most important art museums of cultural history in Europe and the world...

, a copy is integrated in the Lindenhof wall at Pfalzgasse, leading to St. Peter church.

Using the advantage of topography, the Roman military
Roman legion
A Roman legion normally indicates the basic ancient Roman army unit recruited specifically from Roman citizens. The organization of legions varied greatly over time but they were typically composed of perhaps 5,000 soldiers, divided into maniples and later into "cohorts"...

 built a citadel on top of the hill in the years of the Roman emperor Valentinian I
Valentinian I
Valentinian I , also known as Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. Upon becoming emperor he made his brother Valens his co-emperor, giving him rule of the eastern provinces while Valentinian retained the west....

 (364–375), to defend migrations from the North by the Alamanni
Alamanni
The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Rhine river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211 to 217 and claimed thereby to be...

. 4500 m² large, it was fitted with 10 towers and two meter wide walls.

Lindenhof as part of Zurich's medieval fortifications

During the middle ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, the hilltop leveled fort became the retaining wall and gave the Lindenhof terrace largely its current form. Significant parts of the lime mortar and ancient castle wall are integrated into the town houses around the Lindenhof and in a Kaiserpfalz
Kaiserpfalz
The term Kaiserpfalz or Königspfalz refers to a number of castles across the Holy Roman Empire which served as temporary, secondary seats of power for the Holy Roman Emperor in the Early and High Middle Ages...

 (1218 broken), place of festivities, as the engagement of the later German emperor Henry IV
Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry IV was King of the Romans from 1056 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 until his forced abdication in 1105. He was the third emperor of the Salian dynasty and one of the most powerful and important figures of the 11th century...

 with Bertha von Turin on Christmas 1055. The roman castle's remains existed until the early medieval age, as a Carolingian, later Ottonian Pfalz (1054) was built on its remains. This Kaiserpfalz
Kaiserpfalz
The term Kaiserpfalz or Königspfalz refers to a number of castles across the Holy Roman Empire which served as temporary, secondary seats of power for the Holy Roman Emperor in the Early and High Middle Ages...

 was a long building with a chapel on the eastern side of the fortified hill. Lindenhof thus formed the core of the medieval fortifications of Zurich
Fortifications of Zürich
Zurich was an independent city or city-state from 1218 to 1798. The town was fortified with a city wall from the 13th to the 17th century, and with more elaborate ramparts constructed in the 17th to 18th century and mostly demolished in the 1830s to 1870s.-First wall:There had been a first city...

. The emperor Pfalz was reconstructed to a fortified castle (1172 last mentioned, 1218 broken).

In 1937, archaeologists found from west to east oriented graves of late medieval children and adults. In the year 1384, a chapel on the Lindenhof is mentioned, but no remains were found. It is believed, that the chapel was part of the processional axis Wasserkirche
Wasserkirche
The Wasserkirche of Zürich, first mentioned as ecclesia Aquatica Turicensi around 1250 and as wazzirkilcha in 1256, is a church built on a small island in the Limmat, situated between the two main churches of medieval Zürich, the Grossmünster and the Fraumünster.- Overview :The site was likely...

, Grossmünster
Grossmünster
The Grossmünster is a Romanesque-style church in Zurich, Switzerland. It is one of the three major churches in the city . The core of the present building near the banks of the Limmat River was constructed on the site of a Carolingian church, which was, according to legend, originally commissioned...

 and Fraumünster church, processions that ended 1524/25 (Swiss Reformation). These religious celebration at Pentecost honored Zurich's Saints Felix and Regula
Felix and Regula
The saints Felix and Regula are Coptic Orthodox and Roman Catholic saints, together with their servant Exuperantius, and are the patron saints of Zürich, their feast day being 11 September at the head of the Coptic Calendar....

 and Exuperantius.

Lindenhof, a city recreation area

Following the demolition of the former royal residence, the hill – the only public place and park within the city walls – turned to an area of public life and relaxation, with dense tree vegetation, stone tables, crossbow stands, bowling and chess, which is still very popular in our days. According to a chronicle, in 1474 52 tilia
Tilia
Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The greatest species diversity is found in Asia, and the genus also occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but not western North America...

s (lime tree) have been planted. Bow and crossbow-shooting next to the beverage was probably one of the most important leisure activities on the Lindenhof. In August 1526, guests coming from St. Gallen were invited by the city councils and all the Guilds of Zurich for a dinner, among them the prominent Zurich cleric, as Ulrich Zwingli, Leo Jud
Leo Jud
Leo Jud , known to his contemporaries as Meister Leu, Swiss reformer, was born in Guémar, Alsace....

, Konrad Pelikan, Friedrich Myconius
Friedrich Myconius
Friedrich Myconius was a German Lutheran theologian. He was a colleague of Martin Luther....

 and the Kappel abbey
Kappel am Albis
Kappel am Albis is a municipality in the district of Affoltern in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.Its name of Kappel is specified by "on the Albis" to distinguish it from two other villages called Kappel in Switzerland.-History:...

's abbot. Each Zurich guild had its own stone table, and the costumed guild members met on Sechseläuten
Sechseläuten
The Sechseläuten is a traditional spring holiday in the Swiss city of Zürich celebrated in its current form since the early 20th century.-Burning of the Böögg:...

 for dinner, described by Gottfried Keller
Gottfried Keller
Gottfried Keller , a Swiss writer of German-language literature, was best known for his novel Green Henry .- Life and work :...

 in his poem Ein Festzug in Zürich (a procession in Zurich, 1856).

The Hedwig fountain (1688) recalls the legend of the siege of Zurich (1292) by Duke Albrecht I. of Habsburg. The helmeted sculpture of the leader of the courageous Zurich women reminds us of this incident. Under baroque influence, Lindenhof was in 1780 converted in a strictly geometrical park.

1851, the Masonic lodge
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

 Modestia cum Libertate (MCL) bought the Paradies building and converted it to their lodge building with its distinctive gables. At this time, coins, stove tiles and other artefacts from the Roman and medieval times were found. 1865, severe storm damage resulted in a redesign: Instead of Lime trees, dominated for some year chestnut, acacia and gods trees. The redesign was not accepted by the population: 1900, its present appearance was given to the Lindenhof square.

In addition to the historical guild dinner, there are numerous public events and festivals. The square ist one of the most famous places and recreational areas in the heart of Zurich's city, has an impressive view about the historic core of the city, and is one of Zurich's tourist attractions. Cars are not allowed in the narrow streets to the Lindenhof hill.

Among the prominent historical visitors are Casanova
Giacomo Casanova
Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, Histoire de ma vie , is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century...

, Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...

, Johannes von Müller
Johannes von Müller
Johannes von Müller was a Swiss historian.-Biography:He was born at Schaffhausen, where his father was a clergyman and rector of the gymnasium. In his youth, his maternal grandfather, Johannes Schoop , roused in him an interest in the history of his country...

, Herzog Charles Augustus, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher. He was one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, a movement that developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant...

, Anne Louise Germaine de Staël
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein , commonly known as Madame de Staël, was a French-speaking Swiss author living in Paris and abroad. She influenced literary tastes in Europe at the turn of the 19th century.- Childhood :...

, Schlegel, Johann Ludwig Uhland, Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...

, Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

 und Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...

.

Heritage site of national significance

The hillside are is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance
Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance
The Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance is a register of some 8,300 items of cultural property in Switzerland...

 including the remains of its prehistoric, Roman and medieval settlements respectively buildings.

Literature

  • Mauro Baster, Nicola Behrens et al.: Quartierspiegel Lindenhof. Präsidialdepartement der Stadt Zürich, Statistik Stadt Zürich (Hrsg.), Zürich 2006 (PDF; 2.77 MB).
  • Kunsthistorisches Institut (Hrsg.): Grüne Winkel in der City. Zürich 1997
  • Andreas Motschi et al.: Eine Mauer kehrt ins Stadtbild zurück: Untersuchung und Sanierung der Lindenhof-Stützmauer. In: Archäologie und Denkmalpflege. Zürich 2003–2006
  • Walter Baumann: Gang durch Zürich mit Walter Baumann. Band 1: Vom Lindenhof zum Fraumünster. Orell Füssli, Zürich 1987-1993
  • Jürg Schneider, Jürg Hanser: Fenster in die Vergangenheit: Lindenhof, römische Thermen, St. Peter, Wasserkirche, Haus Zum Rech. In: Zürcher Denkmalpflege. Stadt Zürich, 1985/86

External links

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