THE FRAUMÜNSTER.
As it was still cloudy we went into the Swiss National Museum. A hasty glance at the old furniture, at the stained glass—the best collection in the world—made it evident that a week was all too short for Zürich—I should want at least a week for that wonderful museum alone. And with such an intelligent guide as Professor Landoldt it was most edifying. When we came out the sun was shining and we went to the top of the Polytechnikum and got that bird’s-eye view of the town which is the best introduction. I shall always remember the beauty of it; I can see with my mind’s eye the twin towers of the Gross-Münster—not that they are beautiful, at least not their caps—and (from closer observation) the quaint statue of Charlemagne with his gilded crown and sword.
“The molasses-sandstone which was used for building so many of the old edifices in Zürich,” said the Professor, “comes from quarries at the upper end of the lake that were known in Roman times. Unfortunately it crumbles rather readily ‘under the tooth of time.’ Some of the carvings on the old cathedral are most quaint and curious, as you will see. For instance, on the third story is a knight dressed in tunic and chlamys. He may have been meant for Rupert, an Alleman duke, or for Burkhart, Duke of Suabia. Besides the human and angel figures you will see birds and all sorts of four-footed creatures, many of them imaginary or apocalyptic. It is odd that the statues and decorations do not refer to Biblical subjects but rather to heathen imaginations—chimeras, dragons, hippogrifs, sirens, lions eating men who are certainly not meant to be Daniels; there are a winged crocodile devouring a giant’s ears, a toad standing on its head, a bearded Hercules strangling twisted serpents, Delilah cutting Samson’s hair, wolves biting at a boar, skinny monkeys with skulls at their mouths, a face with fish coming out of the mouth and ears, centaurs shooting bows, conventionalized grapes and monsters eating them, and the like.
THE QUAINT STATUE OF CHARLEMAGNE.
“The first towers,” he went on to say, “were in Romanesque style and not intended to rise much above the roof; there should have been a separate campanile; at the end of the Fifteenth Century both towers were built higher in Gothic style. I think it was the ambitious Bürgermeister Waldmann, envious of the tall towers of Basel and Fribourg, who had them elevated. To meet the expenses he himself contributed three hundred gulden, and taxed the whole priesthood from the bishop down, but he did not live to see his ambition carried out. These towers went through various vicissitudes. In 1490 a pointed cap ornamented with lead was put on each, but the lead was too heavy and was taken off twenty years later and the caps were covered with larch shingles. These lasted till they caught fire in 1575; then a copper top was put on; then shingles again; then in 1763 it was struck by lightning and burned to the bell-deck. In 1770 a stone gallery with pyramids on the four corners showed itself. The present rather ridiculous top—the octagonal wooden helmets—dates back to 1779.”
“There must be any amount of interesting remains all around Zürich,” said I, leading him on.
“Indeed there are. A number of years ago the favourite spot for viewing Zürich was up on the Balgrist, where you look down into the Limmat valley and across the lake to the mountains. In 1814, I think it was, some labourers requiring material to mend the roads with dug down and discovered some skeletons. It was supposed to be remains of soldiers killed in the battle between the Russians and the French in 1799 and they gave these remains Christian burial. But they were really prehistoric. Afterwards all sorts of things were found there, but, as it was not then a scientific age, most of them were lost. The place is Entebüchel, which local etymology interprets as the Hill of the Giants; Büchel, equivalent to Hühl, meaning hill, and Ente the local word for giant. But it really means ‘Beyond the Hill,’ the word ent or ennet being an Alleman word.”
“What is the oldest monument in Zürich?”