Kittens From The Dark Side: Zurich Churches

This day we went back to Zurich to explore and then fly out in a couple of days.

Happily, we still had adventures ahead of us!

Here is what I wore:

blouse, socks: Target
pants: SoHo

We start out by taking the train to Zurich.
It was a lovely empty car.

The Zurich train station had its own church chapel!
"Bahnhofkirche":

By the time we got there, it was time for lunch.

We found a restaurant in the Bahnhof (train station).

Greg had a nummy bagel sandwich with blueberry pie.

The restaurant was called "Blueberry American Bakery"

and the design of the shop was adorable.

Look at the wallpaper!

Looks like dots . . .

But it's little blueberries,

happy and running around!

Then we left the train station and stepped out into the sun.

The big beautiful building right outside the station is the Central Library.

There are other lovely buildings, too:

Our plan for the day was to see as many of the churches in Zurich as we could.

The first one was the Predigerkirche.

There was a polite sign, asking if we had turned off our cell phones.

I really liked how clean and open and light this church was inside.

The pews were decorative, but in a calm way.

Beautiful windows, not too overwhelming.

Matthew 22:37
"You should love God your Lord with your entire heart and your entire soul and your entire strength and love your neighbor as you love yourself."

There are the choir area and the huge organ pipes.

Here's the outside:

We walked on . . .

The history of this building was painted on it.
This history begins in 1357!

We loved how this building had a little stick-out parts!

There we are!

This building was also built in 1357.
It tells all the times it was renovated.

Here's the old Post Office!

"The House By The Hole"
This was the home of the Knight Wisso, who lived from 1230-1350
and assumed home of the Duke of Zaehringen from 1218.
According to the saga, the residence of Emporer Karl the Great".

There's the Fraumuenster!
It is built upon the remains of a convent founded in 853 by Louis the German
for his daughter Hildegarde.

This was part of the Cloister (nunnery, convent):

We couldn't take photos inside, but look at these beautiful windows;
they look like very thin slices of agates.
Fabulous!

The doors were my favorite.

Big and bronze,

with images from Biblical stories.

They are tales of God's faithfulness and goodness

and the heroism of the people who strove to follow Him

throughout thousands of years.

Some of the squares had Scripture in the them.

Romans 4:25

"He is risen for our righteousness"

Colossians 3:3

"And your life is hidden with Christ in God"

John 1:1

"In the beginning was the Word

and the Word was with God"

Here are some of the carvings:

Matthew 28:20
"I am with you always until the end of the world"

Here is one of my favorite Bible history stories . . .
the Israelites looking at the bronze snack on a pole to be saved.

Here's some history of the church, beginning in 853.

Then we went inside to see the famous stained glass windows,

which were done by artist Marc Chagall.

Here's one of them:

Most of the panes were indecipherable to me, even though I know the Bible
fairly well. That irks me. At least this one looks like something I can identify.

I browsed around out back and found a really pretty little area where people can cross under the church. It turns out it's the old Cloister!

It was green and quiet and there was a bubbling fountain.

There was a rectangular sculpture in honor of Katherine von Zimmern, who lived from 1478-1547

She was a reformer and patron of the arts, as well as the Abbess of the convent there.
She and fellow reformer Zwingli closed the Abbey (convent) because reformers didn't believe in them
(they believed women should be in their homes, raising children and caring for their husbands).
Of course, if a woman doesn't have a husband, which wasn't infrequent due to wars and a high death rate, closing the convents meant those women had no valid way to survive and contribute with dignity.

There were beautiful paintings depicting some of the happenings affecting the
first members of the convent.

And then we were on our way to the Grossmuenster!
And Zwingliplatz is right there.

Zwingli was the main reformer in Switzerland. He was the Martin Luther of Switzerland,
opposing the unbiblical turns the Catholic church had taken since its founding.
I learned a lot about him during my German history courses in college,
and I was honored to walk where he walked.

The Grossmuenster is the burial place of the City Patron, Felix and the Mother Church of the Reformer Huldrych Zwingli.

Construction began with the crypt and choir area in 1100.

In following renovations of the house, the basilica was completed around 1230.

From 1781-86 the towers were built."

The cobblestones were gorgeous:

We crossed a bridge over the green river and saw this knight:

It was the Burgermeister, Hans Waldman, who died in 1489.
"Lord and Statesman".

We weren't able to take photos inside the Grossmuenster, either,

but we took lots from outside.

Greg found a really neat fountain.

And I loved this beautiful window display.

Then we went to see the Church of Saint Peter:

It was in a nice little square.

And it had an elevator in a glass box because the church itself was up on a hill with steps
up to it.

Matthew 4:10
"You should worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone".

No idea what this is about, but look at how cute this is!
The one to the left says "Little Mugg"
and the one to the right says "Big Mugg"!
I wonder if they both were pubs (Mugg = mug).