The minster
as a whole is a grave and noble product of its time. To realize to the full what it was
when first built, however, we must imagine it as built by a community of some eight
thousand souls. This was no bishop's church like Basel. Rising above the cramped wooden
houses, it must have been an inspiring testimony to the will of the people.
Even now it dominates the old town in quite a peculiar way. Its orientation is
strange. It stands neither parallel to the Limmat nor in the axes of the compass. It rises
like a rock in the sea.
The towers
which Victor Hugo called "d'ignobles poivrières" deserve special mention. For
long they were unequal, low, and insignificant, simply roofed in with wood. In 1474
Charlemagne came to roost in his niche on the south tower. Who the horseman is on the
north tower, nobody knows. Then Waldmann, who had seen the graceful spires of France,
moved the council to erect similar ones on the minster, shingled in white and blue, the
colours of Zürich. The spires were certainly out of keeping with the grave forms of the
minster, but they gave a gay and characteristic note to the town picture, as we can see
from old views of Zürich.
Then, in the eighteenth century, one of them was struck by lightning, and there
was much discussion of what to do. Many were for removal of the whole building, as being
to barbaric and primitive for the Athens on the Limmat. An "airy temple" in
strict Classical style was suggested. From this horror Zürich was saved by Breitinger,
who not only pointed out the architectural beauty of the minster, but argued that it could
not be unhealthy, as its parishioners lived as long as any other church in Zürich. The
telling argument won the day, and the minster was saved.
But the problem of the towers was still unsolved. G.M. Pisoni proposed for the
purpose a marvellous mixture of Catholic baroque and eighteenth-century Gothic. However,
even these were rejected, and after much discussion, the present towers were built.
Nobody could
call these towers beautiful, yet they quite admirably fulfil a difficult function. They
emphasize the great upward movement of the west front, which would have been checked by
anything in the nature of Pisoni's invention. Nondescript as they are, they have
lived themselves into the picture of Zürich.
The Stories of Basel, Berne, and Zürich
by M.D. Hottinger
Medieval Towns Series
London, J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
Hardcover, 338 pages, 1933
Durant
& Cheryl Imboden's