The Münsterbrücke is a pedestrian and

road bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

over the

Limmat The Limmat is a river in Switzerland. The river commences at the outfall of Lake Zurich, in the southern part of the city of Zurich. From Zurich it flows in a northwesterly direction, continuing a further 35 km until it reaches the river A ...

in the city of

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. It is listed in the

Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance #REDIRECT Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance {{R from other capitalisation ...

. It is indirectly named after two ''Münster'' (minsters), the

Fraumünster The Fraumünster (; lit. in ) is a church in Zürich which was built on the remains of a former abbey for aristocratic women which was founded in 853 by Louis the German for his daughter Hildegard. He endowed the Benedictine convent with the l ...

and

Grossmünster The Grossmünster (; "great minster") is a Romanesque-style Protestant church in Zürich, Switzerland. It is one of the four major churches in the city (the others being the Fraumünster, Predigerkirche, and St. Peterskirche). Its congregation ...

Geography

The Münsterbrücke crosses the

, connecting

Münsterhof Münsterhof (literally: Fraumünster abbey courtyard) is a town square situated in the Lindenhof hill, Lindenhof quarter in the historical center of Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest town square within the Altstadt (old town) of Zurich and i ...

and

Limmatquai ''Limmatquai'' () is a street in the Switzerland, Swiss city of Zurich. It is named after the Limmat, and it follows the right-hand (eastern) bank of that river for about through the ''Altstadt (Zürich), Altstadt'', or historical core, of the c ...

at the historical core of the medieval town of Zurich. It is the second bridge over the Limmat, below the Quaibrücke and above the Rathausbrücke.

Transportation

Tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

lines 2, 4 and 15 run past it on

. The ZSG Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft and its Limmat tour boats pass beneath it. Individual transportation is limited to road transport use between upper Limmatquai (

Bellevueplatz Bellevueplatz (, from the French language, French , meaning "beautiful sight") is a town square in the city of Zurich, Switzerland built in 1856. Named after the former on its north side, it is one of the nodal points for roads and public tra ...

), upstream of the Limmat, and Münsterhof, since the area is part of the pedestrian zone of Zurich.

Architecture

In 1835, the chief engineer of the merchant society of the city of Zurich,

Alois Negrelli Nikolaus Alois Maria Vinzenz Negrelli, Ritter von Moldelbe (born Luigi Negrelli; 23 January 1799 – 1 October 1858) was a Tyrolean civil engineer and railroad pioneer mostly active in parts of the Austrian Empire, Switzerland, Germany and I ...

, initiated the construction of the bridge in collaboration with the master-builders Conrad Stadler and Johann Jakob Locher-Oeri, who engineered the sophisticated wooden scaffold. The foundations of the bridge were based on 472 oak piles with a length of up to , to bear its weight of about 6,100 tons. The foundation was filled with concrete, and the spaces between the piles were reinforced with rubblestones. Above that, cofferdams and caissons were erected and reinforced by sandstone plates that lay on cement mortar. The structure consists of four flat arches with a inside diameter and a height of above the Limmat level, and a fifth arch of above a former channel into the former ''Kornhaus'' building opposite the Fraumünster church. The pillars between the arches have a diameter of and are protected by a layer of cement and paneled with black Jura marble. The pillars and cornices and the stones of the traffic lane are made of St. Gotthard granite. The cast-iron railings were produced in the

Grand Duchy of Baden The Grand Duchy of Baden () was a German polity on the east bank of the Rhine. It originally existed as a sovereign state from 1806 to 1871 and later as part of the German Empire until 1918. The duchy's 12th-century origins were as a Margravia ...

. The present bridge has two lanes and sidewalks on both sides, but it is commonly used as a pedestrian and bicycle bridge as road transport is limited between Limmatquai and Münsterhof. Münsterbrücke - Limmat - Münsterhof 2015-09-29 16-12-25 (P7800).JPG, One of the bridge's supports Münsterbrücke - Limmatquai - Geländer - Münsterhof (P7800) 2015-09-29 16-15-43.JPG, Cast-iron railings Münsterhof - Münsterbrücke Belag - Limmtquai (P7800) 2015-09-29 16-15-06.JPG, Traffic lane made of St. Gotthard granite. Münsterbrücke - Limmatquai - Limmat - Münsterhof (P7800) 2015-09-29 16-13-46.JPG, View from Stadthausquai looking downstream The Hans Waldmann (1435–1489) equestrian monument in front of the Fraumünster church was unveiled by the Kämbel guild on 6 April 1937 at the site of the former Fraumünster ''Kornhaus'' (granary), which was torn down in 1897, above the fifth arch of the bridge.

History

The earliest bridge at the location was built in the Roman era, and in medieval Zurich a wooden bridge, called the ''Obere Brücke'' (upper bridge), connected the two banks of the Limmat. Between 1836 and 1838, the former wooden bridge was replaced by a stone bridge.

engineered and supervised the construction of the bridge as it is still present today; it was inaugurated in August 1838. The bridge congested the traffic on the Limmat, so a land connection in the then "modern" Zurich was urgently needed by replacing the narrow medieval ''Reichsstrasse'' towards the present Rathausbrücke crossing. Thus, sections of the present

on the eastern shore of the Limmat were built simultaneously. Starting in 1861, the Fraumünster granary temporarily housed in one of its numerous empty rooms the ''Betraum'' of the Jewish citizens of Zurich until the Synagoge Zürich Löwenstrasse was built in 1881. Until May 1901 and between 1910 and 1924 there was even a tramway crossing the bridge towards Paradeplatz. The original construction has been repaired several times, most recently in the late 1990s. Altartafeln von Hans Leu d.Ä. (Haus zum Rech) - linkes Limmatufer - Münsterbrücke 2013-04-08 15-19-43.jpg, Wooden medieval bridge (''Obere Brücke'') between

and

(''Altarbild'' by Hans Leu d.Ä., late 15th century) Johann Heinrich Müller, 1825-1894 F1 Zürich, von Münsterbrücke.JPG, View from Münsterbrücke, looking downstream, c. 1882: St. Peter, Haus zum Schwert (centre), Rathausbrücke, Rathaus, Haus zum Rüden. Etching by Heinrich Müller Münsterbrücke Kaufhaus.jpg, Münsterbrücke with

horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is a tram or streetcar pulled by a horse. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public transport, public rail transport, ...

, c. 1896

Cultural heritage of national importance

The Münsterbrücke is listed in the

Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance #REDIRECT Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance {{R from other capitalisation ...

as a ''Class A'' object of national importance.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Munsterbrucke Bridges in Zurich Altstadt (Zurich) Bridges completed in 1836 Bridges over the Limmat Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Zurich Road bridges in Switzerland Pedestrian bridges in Switzerland 19th-century architecture in Switzerland