Fortifications of Zurich

Zurich was an independent (reichsfrei) city or city-state from 1218 to 1798. The town was fortified with a city wall from the 13th to the 17th century, and with more elaborate ramparts constructed in the 17th to 18th century and mostly demolished in the 1830s to 1870s.

There had been a first city wall dating to the 11th or 12th century. The existence of such an early wall had been suggested, but the mainstream view assumed that the town had been unfortified – the remains of the Roman castle at the Vicus Turicum, and a so-called Kaiserpfalz on Lindenhof hill excepted – before the 13th century, until the chance discovery of remnants of the first wall during the 1990s construction work at the central library respectively location of the Predigerkloster, the former Dominican abbey.

Following the extinction of the main line of the Zähringer family in 1218, Zurich became a free imperial city. Over the following decades, a city wall was constructed over a length of some 2,400 m.

1485 depiction of the 1444 siege of Zurich during the Old Zurich War (north is right)

1581 depiction of Zurich (north is left)

1904 map of Zurich in 1504

Schanzengraben, Enge quarter, Zürichsee and Albis chain, as seen from the «zur Katz» ramparts (as of today the "old" Botanical Garden)

Remains of the medieval city walls in a basement of Zentralbibliothek Zürich respectively at the location of today's Predigerkirche

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