Something to Declare

Post No. 11: Out and About in Zürich, Redux.

September 13, 2023.

I write this on our terrace at 10 Naphthastrasse, in the middle of a lovely evening thunderstorm. The view and sound of the lightning and thunder are glorious. For the first time in 12 days, little chilly here, but what the hell.

The plan for today was to show our jet-lagged friend and intrepid traveller, Lisa, around Zürich. First to the Fraumünsterkirche, which has the famous Marc Chagall stained-glass windows. Here they are at a distance (Stef and Lisa in the foreground).

They deserve to be famous, particularly since Chagall didn’t learn to work in stained glass until his 70s. He attended their installation in his 80s. (So much for Biden being too old for a second term.) Closer up, you can’t get all five of them in the same photo. From the right:

And from the left:

They are designated, left to right, as (1) the Window of the Prophets, (2) the Window of Jacob, (3) the Window of Christ, (4) the Window of Zion, and (5) the Window of the Commandments. There is also the Chagall Rose Window:

This one was done by Chagall when he was 90 (!), depicting the stages of Genesis in clockwise direction, with the center featuring Noah’s ark (the salvation of creation).

There is also the Giacometti Window, which predates Chagall’s.

Work on this was begun by Giacometti in the 1920s, but it wasn’t installed until 1945, making it a symbol of Peace.

The Fraumünsterkirche also includes a side-chapel, the Marienkapelle Sakristei, the “room of silence,” with much older frescoes:

Like all the houses of worship in Zürich, this place started out as Roman Catholic. In 1524, in the midst of the Reformation, the Fraumünster was ceded by the then Abbess (Catholic) to the City of Zürich (Protestant):

Brings to mind the line from The Godfather: They’d made her an offer she couldn’t refuse.

Outside, we couldn’t help noting the Swiss people’s love for clocks, as seen in this photo of “dueling clocktowers.”

We couldn’t resist taking Lisa to Hiltl, for some vegetarian/vegan fare, and then for a walk down the Limmat River, past a 3-D representation of Zürich (with Braille notations for the blind)

to the Zürichersee (the lake). The No. 4 tram then took us to the city’s design museum, the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich.

Stef and Lisa were blown away by the Akris collection (the only Swiss fashion house that presents at Paris Fashion Week). The exhibition celebrates the centenary of the Kriemler family-owned business. The biz was started by Alice Kriemler-Schoch, who started out by sewing aprons.

I headed to the basement, where their permanent collection had displays of advertising, including posters for and against the women’s movement.

N.B.: Women didn’t get the vote in Switzerland until 1971. There were drawers containing displays of designs of packaging, e.g., for coffee, cigarettes and chocolate,

posters regarding control of vehicular traffic and traffic noise,

and household utensils like 1930s vegetable peelers (and the inevitable Swiss Army Knife).

If the design works, why change it? I remember that Danielle and Ira used to come back from trips abroad, bringing me gifts of artsy vegetable peelers. Every little object has a meaning all its own.

Tomorrow, we take Lisa to Luzern.