Oetenbach nunnery: Difference between revisions

[[File:Oetenbach Murerplan.jpg|thumb|upright|''Oetenbach'' at the [[Lindenhof hill]] on the so-called [[Murerplan]] map of 1576.]]

On the so-called [[Murerplan]] map of 1576, the central ''Lindenhof–Sihlbühl'' hill area is illustrated, surrounded by the [[Limmat]] river – at the top, in fact in the east and not in the north – the ''[[Fröschengraben]]'' and ''[[Schanzengraben]]'' moat to the right, and some of the then [[meander]]ing streams of the [[Sihl]] river to the right. There are also shown the watermills,<ref name="staatsarchiv-mühlesteg">{{cite web|url=http://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/detail.aspx?ID=282426|title=C V 3.13 a.3 Mühlen am Mühlesteg, 1344-1682 (Dossier) |publisher=[[Staatsarchiv des Kantons Zürich]]|language=de|access-date=2015-10-07}}</ref> provided by the nunneries in Zürich at the location of the present [[Rathausbrücke Zürich|Rathausbrücke]] and southernly [[Rathausbrücke Zürich|Münsterbrücke]] and former ''[[Gedecktes Brüggli]]'' bridges over the Limmat river, an old priviligueprivilege dating back to the foundation of the [[Fraumünster]] abbey located at the present [[Münsterhof]] square.

''Oetenbach'' was named after the small stream of the same name at its first location at [[Zürichhorn]], as today named ''Wildbach'' respectively ''Hornbach''. The nuns changed the unhappy chosen location of the former convent to the today's ''Oetenbachgasse'' in 1286.<ref name="gangdurzüri-oetenbachgasse">{{cite web|url=http://www.alt-zueri.ch/turicum/strassen/o/oetenbachgasse/oetenbachgasse.htm|title=Oetenbachgasse|publisher=Gang dur Alt-Züri|author=Gebrüder Dürst|language=Germande|access-date=|accessdate=2015-01-17}}</ref> The founding was supported by the [[House of Rapperswil]], namely by [[Elisabeth von Rapperswil]], who has like her mother and father before, was an ally of the city of Zürich and had the citizenship (''Burgrecht'') of the [[Municipalities of the canton of Zürich|municipality]] at the northwesternlynorthwesterly end of ''Zürichsee''. Thus, her daughter ''Cecilia von Homberg'' (* probably before 1300; † after 1320) became the prioress of the Dominican nunnery, which promoted its further development, and her brother [[Wernher von Homberg]] donated the ''Our Lady Chapel'' in 1320.<ref name="adb">{{cite web|url=http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/bsb00008368/images/index.html?id=00008368&fip=yztseayawxsqrsxdsydeayaxdsyd&no=3&seite=288|title=Bd.: 10, Gruber - Hassencamp, Leipzig, 1879|publisher=[[Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie]]|author=|language=Germande|access-date=|accessdate=2014-11-12}}</ref> Also probably [[Johann I (Habsburg-Laufenburg)|''Johann&nbsp;I'' von Habsburg-Laufenburg]], son of Countess Elisabeth by fistfirst marriage, may have supported the nunnery as being in close friendship to the [[Predigerkloster]] which got in the 1340s asylum in [[Rapperswil]].<ref name="dölfwild-predigern">{{cite web|url=https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/hbd/de/index/archaeologie_denkmalpflege_u_baugeschichte/publikationen/online-publikationen/2006_wild_ua_predigerkirche.html|title=Die Zürcher Predigerkirche – Wichtige Etappen der Baugeschichte. Auf dem Murerplan beschönigt? – Untersuchungen an der Westfassade der Predigerkirche.|publisher=Amt für Städtebau der Stadt Zürich|author=[[Dölf Wild]], Urs Jäggin, Felix Wyss|language=Germande|date=2006-12-31|accessdateaccess-date=2014-12-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141219075047/https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/hbd/de/index/archaeologie_denkmalpflege_u_baugeschichte/publikationen/online-publikationen/2006_wild_ua_predigerkirche.html|archive-date=2014-12-19|url-status=dead}}</ref> So the nunnery spread at hethe location where the present ''Urania'' underground parking facilities were built in the 1960s, and also was forced by the city government (''Rat'') of Zürich to enforce the northwesternlynorthwesterly [[fortifications of Zürich]], namely the so-called ''Oetenbach'' bulwark. The irrigated grave system of medieval Zürich, consisting of ''[[Fröschengraben]]'', the outer ''[[Sihl]]graben'' and the intermediate town wall was first mentioned in 1258 AD as ''niuwer graben'', and on 23 June 1292, a law to regulate by decree was sealed by the city of Zürich and the convent, related to the section of the town wall at the ''[[Sihlbühl]]'' area.<ref name="staatsarchiv-stadtmauer">{{cite web|url=http://suche.staatsarchiv.djiktzh.ch/detail.aspx?ID=524215|title=C I, Nr. 856 Der Rat von Zürich trifft mit dem Kloster Oetenbach eine Übereinkunft betreffend die Stadtmauer am Sihlbühl (Gegenbrief ... (1292.06.23)|publisher=[[Staatsarchiv des Kantons Zürich]]|language=de|access-date=2015-08-05}}</ref> On the ''wall gardens'', probably the area between Fröschengraben, Sihlgraben and [[Schanzengraben]], a house is mentioned in 1346. Over the decades, the time accumulating sludge was periodically dug out by day labourers or in forced labour to process. The excavation was used to fertilize the fields of the Oetenbach nunnery.

Because of his great appointment district in the province of the order Dominican ''Teutonia '' order, the [[Predigerkloster]] at [[Neumarkt, Zürich|Neumarkt]] opposite of the Limmat river, influenced almost throughout the German-speaking Switzerland. Therefore, the [[Predigerkirche Zürich|Predigern]] parish church was in charge of the pastoral care of the Oetenbach nunnery, as well as of the urban communities of the women [[Beguines]], who lived nearby the Dominican and Franciscan mendicant orders in separate quarters outside the convents.<ref name="dölfwild-predigern"/>

[[File:Regensberg - Ulrich von Regensberg 20100524 18-27-34 ShiftN.jpg|thumb|upright|replic of the gravestone of [[House of Regensberg|''Ulrich I von Regensberg'']] inat the [[Regensberg ZH|RegensbergCastle]]]]

The ''Oetenbachbollwerk'' was a bastion of the fortifications, and was built under the supervision of Balthasar Keller in 1532. The stronghold replaced a wooden mounting in the garden of the Oetenbach convent and had to secure the western town wall and the gate at the Limmat riverRiver. In 1642 the bulwark was covered, and in 1764 the adjoining [[Waisenhaus Zürich|Waisenhaus]] building was provided as a storage room and economics building. In 1903 the bastion was broken as the last construction of the city's fortifications. Numerous finds came to light, including the gravegravestone stoneof [[House of Regensberg|''Ulrich I von RegensburgRegensberg'']], which was missusedmisused as a loophole cornice of the bulwark.<ref name="gangdurzüri-oetenbachbollwerk">{{cite web|url=http://www.alt-zueri.ch/turicum/befestigungen/stadtbefestigung_neubauten_links/oetenbachbollwerk/oetenbachbollwerk.html|title=Oetenbachbollwerk|publisher=Gang dur Alt-Züri|author=Gebrüder Dürst|language=Germande|access-date=|accessdate=2015-01-22}}</ref>

The so-called '' Gedecktes Brüggli '' served as a pedestrian bridge, was very popular, but was broken in 1950.<ref name="gangdurzüri-oetenbachbollwerk"/> As its Swiss-German Swiss-German name explains, it was a ''covered wooden bridge'' that was created by architect Vögtlin over an arm of the Limmat river in 1689. Measuring about 17.5 metersmetres in length, it connected the lower ''Mühlesteg'' and ''Papierwerd'' between present [[Limmatquai]] and Bahnhofquai nearby [[Bahnhofbrücke Zürich]]. At the site of the then -mill lower ridge at ''Papierwerd'' – a former river island that later was used as the site of a paper mill – the today's ''Mühlesteig[[Mühlesteg]]'' pedestrian bridge was errectederected.

* Christine Barraud Wiener and Peter Jezler: ''Die Stadt Zürich I. Stadt vor der Mauer, mittelalterliche Befestigung und Limmatraum''. In: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Kantons Zürich, Wiese Verlag, Basel 1999, {{ISBN |978-3-9061-3171-9.}}

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[[Category:1520s1525 disestablishments in SwitzerlandEurope]]

[[Category:Religious16th-century buildingsdisestablishments in Zürichthe Old Swiss Confederacy]]