Predigerkloster

The city of Zürich supported at that time the popular mendicant orders by attributing them free plots in the suburbs and asked them 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 friars settled, according to the chronicler Heinrich Brennwald, outside of the city walls of medieval Zürich at Stadelhofen in 1230 AD, and in 1231 it 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.[2] In 1232 a sale of land to Hugo von Ripelin, then the paddock prior, is mentioned.[3] 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".[4]

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at Zähringerstrasse was allowed to the so-called "prayer" (used for Dominican friars, the 'blackfriars') abbey, and repealed in 1843.[5] The monastery was built at the edge of the city on a flat terrace between the now subterranean Wolfbach and today's Hirschengraben road.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 are 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 evident, 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.[2]

The order purchased 28 houses in the 13th and early 14th century, and was in close connection to the city nobility and landed gentry in Zürich and the surrounding area, among them the Bilgeri family (Grimmenturm) and the House of Rapperswil, where they were received after their expulsion to 1348 to asylum in Rapperswil. Memorial measurement had to be held until the 14th century at Grossmünster, because thus the most income was achieved. Until the Reformation in Zürich, all income obtained with the funerals had also to be delivered to the Grossmünster abbey.[6]

Because of its situation in the province of the order Teutonia, the convent influenced most of German-speaking Switzerland. It was in charge of the pastoral care of the nun's monasteries Oetebach and Winterthur-Töss as well as the urban communities of the female Beguines, who lived nearby the Dominican and Franciscan mendicants in separate quarters outside the convents. After the founding of the Dominican convents in Bern, Chur and Zofingen, remained under the pastoral care of the canton of Zürich – the counties of Baden and Uznach, the cantons Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zug as well as parts of Glarus, Uri and Gaster, and the border areas around Schwarzwald and Klettgau.[6] In 1259 Count Rudolf IV von Rapperswil, Countess Elisabeth's father, donated certain duties and lands "in den Widen" for the construction of the Dominikanerinnenkloster Maria Zuflucht. Initially, the Dominican nuns were supported by the Dominican convent in Zürich, because of its close relationship to the House of Rapperswil. After the founding of the monastery, the Dominican friars in Chur took over the pastoral assistance of the monastic community in Weesen.[7]

The monastery's buildings and the town's fortification at Seilergraben–Hirschengraben around 1750

The extremely ambitious dimensions of the Dominican's Baroque church were designed in the early 14th century. But already in the 1330s, the construction was set, and remained unfinished for years. The second phase of building ended in a much more harmonious construction, and much substance of the Romanesque building was saved, for example, almost the entire Romanesque transept remained.[2] Historical events are the explanation for that change. The revolution of 1336 that Rudolf Brun and his entourage brought to power[8] was followed by a period of economic uncertainty reaching its peak with the plague of 1348/49, the persecution and killing of the Jewish citizens of the so-called Synagogengasse in 1349,[9] as well as the "Zürich night of murder" (Mordnacht) by 1350, a failed counter coup of Brun's opposition under the son of Johann I (Habsburg-Laufenburg), Johann II. Unlike the Franciscan and the Augustinian orders, the Preachers in Zürich pleaded to the Pope, another opponent of the political situation in Zürich, and therefore the convent was forced to leave the city for several years. Its exile led to Winterthur and Kaiserstuhl and finally to Rapperswil, whose counts were the most prominent opponents of Brun's regime. This development represents the beginning of the general decline of the Zürich Dominican convent.[2]

Within the city, as the other "mendicant" orders, the Predigern have been reduced to the function of area pastors.[10][11] The convent was disestablished on 3 December 1524, worship in the church was discontinued, and the buildings and income of the monastery were assigned to the adjoining Heilig-Geist-Spital.[1][8][2]