Lindenhof hill (Zürich)

The Lindenhof (lit.: courtyard of the lime) is a moraine hill and a public square in the historic center of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the site of the Roman and Carolingian era Kaiserpfalz around which the city has historically grown. The hilltop area—including its prehistoric, Roman, and medieval remains—is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

Lindenhof (its northern part is called Sihlbühl) dominates the Lindenhof quarter in district 1 (Altstadt), the historical center of Zürich's Altstadt. To the North, it ends at Uraniastrasse (City police station) and to the South, it ends near St. Peter church. In the West, the hill is limited by the Bahnhofstrasse, and in the east, it ends at the Limmat and the Schipfe quarter.

Lindenhof sits atop the remains of a glacier. The hill and its public square are part of the Linth Glacier's moraines in the area of Zürich. The now largely flattened Lindenhof (428 m ü. M) rises about 25 meters above the Limmat.

At the flat shore of Lake Zurich were Neolithic and Bronze Age (4500 to 850 BC) lakeside settlements, such as Kleiner Hafner and Grosser Hafner (both small former islands west of Sechseläutenplatz, near Bauschänzli at the Stadthausquai, Alpenquai at the Bürkliplatz square and Lindenhof). Lindenhof was largely surrounded by water: until the early medieval area, neighboring Münsterhof (Fraumünster abbey square) was a swampy hollow flooded by the Sihl. Therefore, Lindenhof was an optimal location for early fortified settlements. Middle bronze age (1500 BC) artefacts were found near the Limmat (Schipfe). Archaeologists found remains of a Celtic Oppidum from the 1st century BC (La Tène culture), whose remains were found in archaeological campaigns in the years 1989, 1997, 2004 and 2007 on Lindenhof and Rennweg.

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