Waisenhaus Zürich

Waisenhaus
Native name Waisenhaus
Waisenhaus as seen from Limmatquai
Location	Bahnhofquai 3, 8003 Zürich
Coordinates	47°22′22.6″N 8°32′30.4″E / 47.372944°N 8.541778°E / 47.372944; 8.541778Coordinates: 47°22′22.6″N 8°32′30.4″E / 47.372944°N 8.541778°E / 47.372944; 8.541778
Built	before 1521, rebuilt 1911–1914
Architect	Gustav Gull (1914)
Governing body	City of Zürich

Waisenhaus (also Amthaus I) is the last remaining building of the Oetenbach nunnery, and houses today the police departement of the city of Zürich in Switzerland.

The Waisenhaus building is situated at Bahnhofquai 3 towards Bahnhofbrücke and Hautbahnhof Zürich. Built in fact outside of the historical core of the medieval town of Zürich, previously the Celtic-Roman Turicum, the former Zucht- und Waisenhaus is the last remaining structure of the Oetenbach nunnery at the Lindenhof-Silhlbühl hill on the western shore of the Limmat river.

After the Reformation in Zürich, the city government took over the monastic buildings for new uses. To manage the income of the former convent, the former administration building was held as Oetenbacheramt housing the former wine cellar. In 1601 the building was extensively remodeled and equipped with stepped gables, and as police barracks, in 1872 the remains of wall paintings were discovered. After a renovation in 1735 the south facade was in 1776 redesigned with a simple baroque, and an additional ceiling was set up and a second floor. From 1799 to 1802 the church buildings were among others used as a military hospital. Already between 1637 and 1639 the ground floor was used as an orphanage in the north, in the west wing a prison was set up in the former dormitories of the nuns. In 1771 the orphans were held in the newly built orphanage in the former monastery's garden, and the north and west wings were extensively needed to rebuilt as a penitentiary and workhouse, separating the prison from the new orphanage. The former orphanage today serves as the official Stadthaus I at the present Waisenhausstrasse, meaning orphary lane. When the remaining buildings of the Oetenbach nunnery were broken, the occasion was not used by the archaeologists to secure finds of the Oppidum Zürich-Lindenhof. In 1903 the adjoint Oetenbachbollwerk bastion was broken as the last structure of the city's fortifications. The subsequent so-called Gedecktes Brüggli served as a pedestrian bridge, and was broken in 1953.