Predigerkloster

The Predigerkloster was a monastery of the Dominican Order, established around 1234 and abolished in 1524, in the imperial city of Zürich, Switzerland. Its church, the Predigerkirche, is one of the four main churches in Zürich, and was first built in 1231 as a Romanesque church of the then Dominican monastery. In the first half of the 14th century it was converted, the choir between 1308 and 1350 rebuilt, and a for that time unusually high bell tower built, regarded as the highest Gothic edifice in Zürich.

The city of Zürich supported at that time the popular mendicant orders by attributing them free plots in the suburbs and asked to support the construction of the city wall in return. In the east of the area, the city's fortification was built in the late 11th or 12th century. The first Dominican monks settled, according to the chronicler Heinrich Brennwald, outside of the city walls of medieval Zürich at Stadelhofen in 1230 AD, and in 1231 was first mentioned that in Zurich was a new monastery under construction. In the Schweizerchronik of 1513, Heinrich Brennwald calls for the arrival of the Dominicans in Zurich the year 1230. In two documents from 1231 a Dominican oratorio is mentioned. In 1232 a sale of land to Hugo von Ripelin, then the paddock prior, is mentioned. Initially, against the resistance of the Grossmünster canons, the Dominican's inclusion in Zürich was granted in 1233/1235, because they tirelessly drove the little foxes in the vineyard of the Lord.

Located at the medieval Neumarkt quarter, the commonly named Predigerkloster was mentioned for the first time in 1234 AD as a monastery of the Dominican Order. The monastery consisted of a Romanesque church in the same place as the today's Predigern church, and the three-winged building complex attached to the north of the church. In 1254 the establishment of a cemetery at Zähringerstrasse was allowed tp the so-called "prayer" (used for Dominican monks, the 'blackfriars') abbey, and repealed in 1843. The monastery was built at the edge of the city on a flat terrace between the now subterranean Wolfbach and the as of today Hirschengraben road. The monastery area was delimited by a wall from the urban environment. Remnants of this wall were found in 1995 on the present Predigerplatz square. The hospital was erected in the west, beyond the Wolfbach stream at the location of today's Spitalgasse, before the Dominicans settled in Zürich. In the decades in which the convent was built, the new fortifications, which is depicted on the Murerplan of 1576, was built at that location. The Neumarkt quarter arose at the same time and was settled increasingly by Beguines. Among other things, the orthogonal structure of the monastery, the town fortifications and the Chorgasse and Predigergasse lane are evidence, and especially the latter is important for this quarter; it leads from Neumarkt in a straight line to the southern portal, which was the main entrance to the church. The northern part of the convent was predominantly used for agricultural purpose.

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