The Reformation in Zurich
Limmatquai 31
The altar panels by Hans Leu the Elder.
Opening hours
Tue 9 am – 12 pm
Wed – Fri 2 – 5 pm
Sat 12 – 5 pm
ZURICH, EUROPEAN CITY OF THE REFORMATION.
A HISTORIC TOUR.
2 Grossmuenster Cathedral
Grossmünsterplatz / Zwingliplatz
The above picture shows a section
of the altar painting by Hans Leu
the Elder who made this piece for
the Grossmuenster Cathedral in
1502. It depicts the martyrdom of
the Theban Christians Felix and
Regula during the reign of Emperor
Diocletian around 300. The city at
the time of the Reformation can be
seen in the background. Felix and
Regula were revered as the city’s
patron saints.
Today the depiction can be found
at the National Museum near
the central railway station. The
museum also houses numerous
documents concerning Swiss
history. Many artifacts illustrate the
Reformation in Zurich. Among them
are a helmet and a sword that are
said to have belonged to Zwingli.
The Reformer fell during the Battle
of Kappel in 1531. His body was
quartered and burned there and his
ashes were scattered.
7 Schipfe with Anabaptists
plaque
Footpath alongside Limmat river
Starting at Rudolf-Brun Bridge turn
to the left
8 St. Peter’s
St. Peter-Hofstatt
11
The Swiss National Museum
Museumstrasse 2
Zurich
Phone: +41 (0)58 466 65 11
www.nationalmuseum.ch
Opening hours:
Tue-Sun 10 am – 5 pm.
Thu 10 am – 7 pm
Zurich Tourism Board
Tourist Service
Inside the railway station
8001 Zurich
Phone: +41 (0)44 215 40 00
[email protected]
www.zuerich.com
Information and guided tours
www.zhref500.ch
www.zwingli.ch
Opening hours
10 am – 6 pm
(Mar – Oct)
10 am – 5 pm
(Nov – Feb)
2 Cloister of the
Chorherrenstift Convent
Entrance Zwingliplatz, starting at
the main portal of Grossmuenster
Cathedral head left
3 Helferei and Haus zur Suhl
Kirchgasse 13 et 22
4 Statue of Bullinger
at Grossmuenster Cathedral
Opening hours
Mon – Fri 8 am – 6 pm
Sat 10 am – 4 pm
Sunday, after church service
Around 11 am – 5 pm
9 Fraumuenster Church
Muensterhof
Opening hours
10 am – 6 pm
(Apr – Oct)
10 am – 4 pm
(Nov – Mar)
10 City Hall
Limmatquai 55
11 National Museum
4 Antistitium (former seat
of the Antist)
Zwingliplatz 4
5 Froschaugasse
(Froschau Lane)
(Froschau Fountain)
Zähringerplatz / Predigerplatz
6 Preacher’s Church
Predigerplatz
Opening hours
Tue – Fri 10 am – 6 pm
Mon 1 – 6 pm
Sat & Sun 10 am – 5 pm
12 Zurich central railway station
Public transit:
Tram 4 jusqu’à l’arrêt Helmhaus
Our tour through Reformation-time
Zurich takes us to the important
places in Reformer Zwingli’s life
and in those of his successors. The
stops are not arranged chronologically but in a way that makes for
a doable walk. The tour starts at
Wasserkirche Church and ends at
the Rathaus (City Hall), which are
close to each other.
The Reformation movement radically changed the Zurich area and
the whole Swiss Confederation.
Unlike Germany, where rulers
determined the policies of the
Church, Switzerland’s system
featured pre-democratic structures,
which influenced the Reformation
movement. In 1519 Ulrich Zwingli
was appointed Leutpriester (Priest
in charge of the local parish and
the pilgrims) at Grossmuenster
Cathedral by the Council of Zurich.
He reported to the Government of
Zurich.
Zwingli had previously been priest
for the pilgrims at Einsiedeln. As a
military chaplain he had witnessed
the Battle of Marignano in 1515, in
which approximately 10,000 Swiss
mercenaries, including many child
soldiers, were killed.
From the very beginning of his
ministry in Zürich, Zwingli criticized
the lucrative mercenary business,
the worship of saints, the selling of
indulgences and the mass.
His arguments against the religious
practices of his day were based on
the Bible. From day one, instead
of delivering his sermons on the
prescribed church lectionary
readings, he began preaching the
Gospel of Matthew from beginning
to end. Zwingli soon found sympathizers, like-minded theologians,
but also citizens and members
of the government. He stayed in
contact with other localities within
the Swiss Confederation, where the
ideas of the Reformation were also
attracting attention.
Zurich had 7000 inhabitants at the
time of the Reformation. This figure
was reduced to 5000 following an
outbreak of the black plague. In
those days the Church possessed
benefices and real estate both
within and outside the city limits.
Tributes for their upkeep as well as
for the upkeep of monasteries were
a heavy burden on the people.
In addition, church edifices were
regularly rebuilt or modified. They
housed costly relics, worshipped
by the people, as well as precious altars, insignia and liturgical
vestments. During the Reformation
there were a few isolated incidences of iconoclasm, but usually
the pictures and statues of saints
and the altars were removed in an
orderly fashion. Monasteries were
closed and the buildings were dedicated to other purposes.
The steady growth of the city
during the 19th and early 20th
centuries meant that numerous
old buildings were razed to make
room for new housing units, often
in historical style. The surrounding
communities became a part of the
city and Reformed churches were
erected in all these new neighborhoods. Catholic churches were
also built, as many people moving
to Zurich from other places were
Catholics.
The cover picture shows the procession route on the Murer map of
Zurich dating back to 1576. It started at the Grossmuenster Cathedral, as this was the burial site of
the patron saints Felix and Regula,
continued on to the Wasserkirche
Church and went from there to
Fraumuenster Church.
City Tour
Zurich and the Reformation
1 Wasserkirche Church
Wasserkirche
Church
1
Grossmuenster
Cathedral
Cloister
2
2
Entrance at Zwingliplatz, head to
the left starting at the main portal
of Grossmuenster Cathedral
Reformed / Limmatquai 31
Reformed / Zwingliplatz
This is believed to have been the
place where Felix and Regula were
decapitated during the reign of
Emperor Diocletian around the year
300. The siblings were part of the
Theban legion of the Roman army,
which had refused to fight their
Christian adversaries. According to
the legend, the heads of Felix and
Regula were carried to the spot
where the Grossmuenster Cathedral
was later erected in their honor. The
Wasserkirche Church was the place
of their execution, the Grossmuenster Cathedral was their burial site
and at Fraumuenster Church relics
of the patron saints were worshipped. These three edifices constituted the procession axis along which
many pilgrims walked before the
Reformation (cf. the cover picture).
The structure dates back to the
13th century and was situated on
an island at the time of the Reformation. On the eastern side, close to
the Limmat River, stands the Ulrich
Zwingli Monument of 1885. The
Bible in Zwingli’s hand reminds us
of the foundation of the Reformation. The sword does not mean that
Zwingli wanted to spread his message through violence. Instead, the
maker of the monument wanted the
viewers to realize that Zwingli also
intended a new political order.
Today’s structure was largely built
between 1100 and 1250. It served
equally as parish church and as
convent for the canons. This was
the place where Ulrich Zwingli, who
called himself “Huldrych”, started
preaching Matthew’s Gospel in
1519. Unlike in the earlier rite, Christ
alone was now to be at the center of
the worship service.
While preaching the Bible he began
criticizing the religious abuses of his
time. His sermons, his writings and
his influence, as well as pressure
from the population in the city and
in the countryside, succeeded in
having the Council of Zurich remove
treasures and statutes of saints from
the churches. Singing and organ
music were also banned from the
church service for many years. The
altar for the missal sacrifice was replaced by a simple table. From now
on the Lord’s Supper was to be a
ceremony of gratitude and commemoration.
In Zwingli’s time the Felix and Regula
Provost Church stood here, adjacent
to Grossmuenster Cathedral. The
church was razed in 1849 and later
replaced by a neo-Romanesque
structure. The cloister that can be
seen today mainly consists of newer
elements, but also contains certain
original pieces dating back to the
12th century. In pre-Reformation
days this was where the twenty-four
canons of the Church lived. They
were responsible for the liturgy of the
hours, and celebrating mass. Zwingli
introduced instead the “Prophezey”:
Daily, students and scholars met in
the choir of the cathedral to translate
the Bible and preach to the people.
A School of Theology developed and
in the 19th century the University
of Zurich was established. This is
where the first complete German
translation of the Scripture was finished. It was called the “Froschauer”
Bible (named after the printer), and
was first published in 1531.
Opening hours:
10 am – 6 pm
(Mar – Oct)
10 am – 5 pm
(Nov – Feb)
A permanent exhibition about the
Zurich Reformation can be found in
the cloister.
Opening hours
Tue 9 am – 12 pm
Wed – Fri 2 – 5 pm
Sat 12 – 5 pm
Advance notice of group visits
is appreciated
www.grossmuenster.ch
Helferei and
Haus zur Sul
Zwingli Portal
3
Kirchgasse 13 / 22
Haus zur Sul (Kirchgasse 22/intersection Neustadtgasse) is where
Zwingli first lived. Later, the Helferei
became his official residence,
where he lived with his wife Anna
Reinhart and four children. Their
wedding in 1524 was one of the
first “pastor weddings” after the
obligation of celibacy was lifted.
In the Battle of Kappel in 1531
Anna Reinhart did not only lose her
husband, but also her son from
a previous marriage, as well as
her brother, her son-in-law and a
brother-in-law.
The Grossmuenster parish took
over the house in 1832 when the
Grossmuenster Convent was dissolved. The structure now housed
the deacon. This explains the German name “Helferei” which means
the “house of the helping hand”.
The adjacent neo-Gothic chapel
was erected in the 19th century.
Zwingli’s room, largely authentic,
is accessible only on request. Felix
Manz, who would later become
an Anabaptist leader, used to live
in one of the houses further uphill,
in Neustadtgasse. Anabaptist
assemblies took place there from
1525 on.
Opening hours
Mon 8 am – 6 pm
Tue – Fri 8 am – 10 pm
Sat 9 am – 6 pm
The culture house is closed on
Sundays and public holidays.
Phone 044 250 66 00
www.kulturhaus-helferei.ch
4
Southern portal of
Grossmuenster Cathedral
The bronze portal, a creation of
the sculptor Otto Muench in 1939,
depicts 16 scenes of Zwingli’s life.
Starting from the lower left side: The
second plate depicts the 14 year-old
Zwingli playing his lute as a pupil of
the Bern Dominicans. It then shows
him as a military chaplain preaching
to the soldiers before the Battle of
Marignano in 1515. On the second
row from the bottom to the far right
we see the first celebration of the
Lord’s Supper after mass had been
abolished. Further up Zwingli can be
seen with his family and then translating the Bible. The knight Ulrich
von Hutten is pictured on the next
plate. Zwingli granted him asylum
on Ufenau Island to save him from
persecution by the German Empire.
Further up on the left the “Mushafen” (a large pot of mush) scene
shows the feeding of the poor next
to Preacher‘s Church. On the same
row to the right a plate illustrates
the Marburg Disputation, where
Luther and Zwingli haggled over
the meaning of the Lord’s Supper in
1529 but could not reach common
ground. Not until 1973 were the
Leuenberg Agreements signed by
the Churches of Europe and the
differences resolved.
The square directly above this
depicts Zwingli’s death near Kappel
on October 11th 1531. There are
also illustrations showing Zwingli’s
successor Heinrich Bullinger and
Reformers from other Swiss cities.
Bullinger’s statue
Grossmuenster
Antistitium / Zwingliplatz
4
At the age of twenty-eight Heinrich
Bullinger became Zwingli’s successor after the Reformer’s violent
death. He was “Antistes” (leader of
the Church of Zurich) for 44 years
until he died in 1575. Through
his writings he consolidated the
Zurich Reformation and helped
it to spread throughout Europe.
He was teacher and counselor
to many members of the Reformed faith throughout Europe.
His correspondence amounts to
around 12,000 preserved letters.
They were addressed to rulers
and queens, as well as to ordinary
people. He reached an agreement
on the question of the Lord’s Supper with Geneva Reformer John
Calvin in 1549 with the “Consensus
Tigurinus”. His “Second Helvetian Creed” was appreciated and
even adopted by many churches
around the world. In 1529 Bullinger
married Anna Adlischwyler, one
of the last nuns of Oetenbach
Convent. They had 11 children and
enjoyed a happy marriage. The
family resided in the Antistitium,
located in front of Grossmuenster
Cathedral. To this day it houses the
pastor of Grossmuenster parish.
The structure often sheltered the
needy and persecuted. Anna and
three of Bullinger’s daughters died
of the black plague in 1565.
Froschaugasse
Froschau Fountain
Predigerplatz
5
Today‘s Froschaugasse is a part of
the trajectory from Grossmuenster
Cathedral to Preacher‘s Church.
Its name originates from the book
printer Christoph Froschauer. He
had settled in Zurich in 1519 and
was one of Zwingli’s most important assistants as he printed the
Reformer’s books. He also published
numerous other writings, especially
editions, translations and commentaries of the Scripture. However, he
also owes his fame to the so-called
“Wurstessen” (sausage eating) in
March1522. It was during Lent that
he and his colleagues ignored the
Church’s ban on the consumption of
meat in Lenten Season, and broke
their fast by enjoying sausages.
Zwingli was present at the occasion but did not share the meal with
them. Provocative actions such as
this one helped fuel the Reformation movement. Zwingli defended
his printer’s actions and preached
about a Christian’s freedom to
choose one’s own diet. The Council
of Zurich organized a disputation
of Zwingli’s teachings and, being
convinced, allowed him to proceed.
The laws on fasting were completely
lifted a year later. Froschauer Fountain, located between Zähringerplatz
and Predigerplatz, commemorates
the famous printer.
The statue depicts Froschauer’s
printing symbol, a boy riding on a
frog with a small flag in his hand.
Preacher‘s Church
Reformed
Predigerplatz
Schipfe
6
The preaching order of the Dominicans erected a convent and a
towerless church at this site back
in the 13th century. A Gothic choir
was added after a fire. The order
was abolished in the course of the
Reformation, and the convent was
adjoined to a hospital. The poor were
fed here from the “Mushafen” (a large
pot of mush). The Reformation led
to a reorganization of poverty relief.
Money that was no longer needed
for church decoration was given to
the needy. The church was later
modified in early Baroque style and
became the parish church of Niederdorf. The Gothic choir served as the
University and Canton Library during
the 19th century.
Today Preacher‘s Church is a place
of of hospitality to all. It is open all
day and offers daily midday prayer,
counseling, ecumenical pastoral care
and a reference library with religious
books. It is an open place of calm
and worship in the middle of the city.
Opening hours
Mon 1 – 6 pm
Tue – Fri 10 am – 6 pm
Sat & Sun 10 am – 6 pm
(Apr – Oct)
10 am – 5 pm (Nov – Mar)
www.predigerkirche.ch
7
St. Peter’s
Footpath following the course
of Limmat River
Reformed
St. Peterhofstatt
Zurich is also a birthplace of the
Anabaptist movement. Some of the
initial followers of Zwingli demanded
a quicker and more radical Reformation. The common features of this
initially disparate community were
the rejection of child baptism as a
sign of entry into the Christian civic
community, as well as the refusal to
conduct the oath of allegiance to the
local government authorities and the
law. Some of the followers wanted to gather in small, pacifist and
faithful congregations, while others
sympathized with insurrectionary
peasants. When the Council feared
that the Anabaptist movement could
eventually lead to a general revolution
it started threatening its followers
with increasingly harsh sanctions.
Felix Manz was the first Anabaptist to
be sentenced to death and drowned
in the Limmat River on a level with
the the Schipfe on January 5th 1527.
The stated reasons for his sentence
were “rebellion against the Christian bourgeoisie, destruction of the
Christian community and perjury.”
Another 5 executions of Anabaptists are known to have taken place
before 1532.
St. Peter’s is the oldest parish
church in the city of Zurich, built
on a site of worship in Roman
times. Today’s church nave in early
Baroque style dates from 1705.
This was the first church built in
Zurich after the Reformation. A
few elements belonging to older
structures dating back to the 9th,
10th, 13th and 15th centuries
can be detected in the building.
Leo Jud, a friend of Zwingli and a
co-translator of the Zurich Bible,
was the parish’s pastor from 1523
to 1542. The first acts of destruction targeting altar decoration and
pictures took place at St. Peter’s in
September 1523, following Jud’s
sermon against idolatry. The tower
clock of St. Peter’s Church is
famous for being Europe’s largest
church tower clock. It features four
dials with a diameter of 8.64 m
(340 in.) each.
The worldwide Anabaptist-Mennonite
movement considers Zurich one of
its prime places of origin.
Opening hours
Mon – Fri 8 am – 6 pm
Sat 10 am – 4 pm
Sunday after church service
11 am – 5 pm
8
Fraumuenster
Church
City Hall
9
10
Limmatquai 55
Reformed / Münsterhof
Since the mid-9th century this site
has hosted a church and a women’s
convent. The structures were
continuously extended, modified
and redesigned. Between the 12th
and the 18th century the church
had two towers. The upper part of
the remaining tower dates back to
that time. According to ancient legal
tradition the abbess of Fraumuenster
was considered the ruler of Zurich.
This post had become a merely
ceremonial one by the 16th century.
1524 Katharina von Zimmern, the
convent’s last abbess, granted the
church and all its possessions to
the Council of Zurich, thus securing
the success of the Reformation. A
statue in the cloister commemorates the abbess. In 1900 the former
convent’s cloister was remodeled in
the style of the nearby “Stadthaus”
(seat of the City Government).
In 1853 the Fraumuenster was the
first church in Zurich to have an
organ again after the Reformation.
The church owes its special aura to
the stained glass windows created
by Marc Chagall in 1967.
Opening hours
10 am – 6 pm
(Apr – Oct)
10 am – 6 pm
(Nov – Mar)
The Reformation in Zurich was a
political process. Many important
decisions were made at the City Hall.
Although the structure that can be
seen today is not the original one, the
former building stood on the same
spot above the Limmat River. The
Small Council, the cabinet, as well as
the Large Council, the parliament,
held sessions here during Zwingli’s
years. The councils were composed mostly of guild representatives
who belonged to the upper class.
Following the “Wurstessen” (sausage
eating) incident (when Froschauer
and his friends broke their fast during
Lent), the Council organized a disputation here in January 1523. Zwingli
was told to explain himself and lay
out his teachings. A second disputation took place here in fall 1523
where issues concerning idolatry and
the abolishment of the mass were
discussed. The Zurich Reformation
was a reformation of civic and church
government. Zwingli was aware of
this and tried to balance out positions. Today’s City Hall was erected
between 1694 and 1698.
To this day, the Council of the Canton
of Zurich meets here on Mondays
and the City Council on Wednesdays.
The Church Parliaments, namely
the Reformed and Roman Catholic
synods, equally hold meetings here to
this day. The meetings of the different
parliaments are all open to the public
and can be listened to from the audience platform