Oetenbach Nunnery

Oetenbach was a Dominican nunnery in the medieval municipality of Zürich in Switzerland. Oetenbach was named after the small stream of the same name at its first location at Zürichhorn, situated outside of the European Middle Ages town walls, but moved to the present Sihlbühl. The nunnery was abolished on occasion of the Reformation in Zürich – the Waisenhaus building is its only remained structure, now the headquarters of Stadtpolizei Zürich.

The Oetenbach nunnery was first mentioned in 1237 AD at its first location at the present Zürichhorn. Because the swampy area at the Oetenbach stream was a bad place for the construction of a permanently inhabited convent, some decades later, it was built on the northern slope Sihlbühl of the present Lindenhof hill.

On the so-called Murerplan map of 1576, the central Lindenhof–Sihlbühl hill area is illustrated, surrounded by the Limmat river – at the top, in fact in the east and not in the north – the Fröschengraben and Schanzengraben moat to the right, and some meandering streams of the Sihl river to the right. There are also shown the watermills, provided by the nunneries in Zürich at the location of the present Rathausbrücke and southernly Münsterbrücke and former Gedecktes Brüggli bridges over the Limmat river, an old priviligue dating back to the foundation of the Fraumünster abbey located at the present Münsterhof square.

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