Bauschänzli

Bauschänzli (diminutive of "construction entrenchment") is a town square and a public park in Zürich, Switzerland. Bauschänzli is, among the neighbored Schanzengraben (moat) and the Old Botanical Garden, one of the last remains of the Baroque fortifications of Zürich, which began in 1642. Since 1907 the island has been used as a restaurant, though it is nevertheless officially a public square and park.^[1]

Geography

Bauschänzli is situated in the historical Alpenquai area, on an artificial island on the left-hand shore of the river Limmat off Bürkliplatz at the Stadthausquai road and opposite Bellevueplatz. A tiny public park can also be found here.

Points of interests

Stadthausquai towards Münsterhof, Frauenbadi lido in the foreground, Zunfthaus zur Meisen and Lindenhof in the backbround.

In addition to the so-called Seeuferanlage and its neighboring Uto and General-Guisan-Quai quays,^[2][3] there is nearby the Arboretum Zürich and the Voliere Zürich,^[4][5] that also houses the so-called Vogelpflegestation, a unique sanatory for birds.^[6] Other attractions include the historical Lindenhof quarter downstream the Limmat.

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  Limmat effluence downstream Lindenhof and the historical Turicum

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  The area towards the lake and the Grosser Hafner island, showing the then neigbored Grendeltor about in the 1570s

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  scale model of the late medieval city, Baugeschichliches Archiv, Neumarkt, Zürich

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  Circus Conelli in December

Today the small park is dominated by the restaurant of the same name, that claims to be the biggest beer garden outside the Munich Octoberfest.^[7] The area is illuminated by the Plan Lumière of the city government of Zurich.^[8] Just in December, the area also is home to the Circus Conelli, the only event periodically hold on the small island.

History

Prehistory

Drawing by Johann Balthasar Bullinger showing the bulwark in 1770.

Located on the then swamp land between Limmat and Lake Zurich around Sechseläutzenplatz on small islands and peninsulas in Zürich, Prehistoric pile dwellings around Zürichsee were set on piles to protect against occasional flooding by the Linth and Jona. Alpenquai is located on the Lake Zurich lake shore in Enge, a locality of the municipality of Zürich. It was neighbored by the settlements at Kleiner Hafner and Grosser Hafner on a then peninsula respectively island in the effluence of the Limmat, on an area of about 0.2 square kilometres (49.42 acres) within the city of Zürich. As well as being part of the 56 Swiss sites of the UNESCO Worl Heritage Site Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps,^[9][10] the settlements are also listed in the Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance as a Class object.^[11] Despite the dredging for the construction of the Seequai between 1916 and 1919, an amazingly big area of approximately 2.8 hectares (7 acres) with two cultural layers was preserved around Bauschänzli. There were found pile shoes at different altitudes in the cultural layers and rich bar decoration of ceramics occurred exclusively in the lower layer, while the decoration on cannelure groups was limited to the upper layer, as well as some graphite-decorated fragments.^[12][13]

Grendeltor

Grendeltor by Hans Leu at the end of the 15th century AD

Grendeltor or colloquially Grendel was the only water gate in the medieval Zürich, and it also served as an additional lakeside fortification towards the present Stadelhoferplatz. The gate served as a transit for the vessel traffic between the Limmat and Lake Zurich. It was the only water gate in Zürich, and stood on the right bank of the Limmat at the today's Haus Bellevue, opposite of the Bauschänzli bastion, and was enforced by a double row of palisades. In an assignment list of about 1489 AD, two riflemen "uff the hutten" were mentioned, meaning probably the Grendeltor. The gatetower was also built as a customs station for goods that were transported on the waterway to then civilian used Schifflände harbour situated there; the medieval military harbour was situated at the present Sechseläutenplatz. In 1578 the alert to the buzz uff the huts had to be guaranteed at day and night. The Grendeltor was also broken in the mid-19th century.^[14]

Modern history

Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft (ZSG) landing gate probably in the 1850s

Limmatquai and Quaianlagen: Bellevueplatz and Bürkliplatz, Quaibrücke, Münsterbrücke and Münsterhof, and Rathausbrücke–Weinplatz, aerial photography by Eduard Spelterini in the probably mid-1890s.

The name Bauschänzli derives from the former building site Bauplatz Schanz, meaning construction site at the Lair or literally bastion, later it was popularly called Schänzlein im Wasser, situated in the historical Kratz quarter. It was built as a bulwark, where a picket fence in its south in the then Lake Zurich lake shore was built bforee, in between 1657 and 1662 AD. As of today, Bauschänzli was reached from the left bank of the Limmat year, at that time site of the Bauhaus of the city's engineer, by a web-scraped drawbridge.^[15] As a southerly outpost, it served as a bastion to protect the city against naval attacks. On a shoal in the Limmat funnel, a small hill was built in 1660, which should block access from the lake to the city. It was called Halbmond meaning "half moon", and was also planted with trees. However, it was never seriously threatened in the following years, thus it was used primarily for public events.^[16] The so-called Schwirren, the lakeside palisades, were broken in 1834/35 and its wall fortification in 1842.^[15] When the fortifications were abolished, the then called Bauschänzli bastion remained intact and served from 1835 to 1883 as the landing site for the first steamboats on the lake, later provided by the Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft (ZSG). For some years property of the Canton of Zürich, it was sold back to the city in 1846, under reserve that it must remain opened to the public as a public square. The so-called Leutholdplan map of 1846 showed it in fact as a public park with tall trees and a huge pillars in its centre. In 1907 the owner of the Metropol building at Stadthausquai was allowed to run a garden restaurant, and a building was erectet for the then Biergarten and to house an electric lighting facilty. The current economic building and the distinctive columns-like poplar were erected in 1937. In 2001/2002, in addition to the renovation and expansion of the so-called Herter-building, new trees were planted and replenished, and the urban Plan Lumière implemented.^[16]

Cultural Heritage

Bauschänzli is listed in the Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance as a Class A object.^[17]

See also

• Alpenquai
• Bürkliplatz

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bauschänzli.