Münsterhof (literally: Fraumünster abbey courtyard) is a town square situated in the Lindenhof quarter in the historical center of Zürich, Switzerland.
Public transport from this area includes the Zürich tram lines 2, 4 and 15, as well as the Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft (ZSG) and its Limmat river tour boats towards Zürichhorn.
It was unveiled on 6 April 1937 by the Kämbel guild, aiming to rehabilitate Hans Waldmann, mayor of Zürich from 1482 to 1489 and their former dean, who they proposed had been the victim of a judicial murder.
Once work is finished, the plaza is to again be a representative and lively urban square in the heart of historical Zürich, available in its entirety for major events.
The present (as of October 2015) construction works will result in minimal physical design changes, but the city's authorities claim "they will nonetheless enhance the square significantly" and create a "transformation into a tranquil open space which invites everyone to take a stroll or simply relax.
Suggested by historians and recent archaeological evidence uncovered during construction at Münsterbrücke, the present Weinplatz square may have been the site of the civilian harbour of the Celtic-Roman Turicum.
On 18 July 1336, Rudolf Brun defeated his political opponents in the Rat (council) of Zürich; these banned members found refuge with Count Johann I in Rapperswil.
[19] The feud was continued by Johann II in the late 1340s,[17] and an attempted coup by Brun's opposition was forcefully put down after intensive street fights around Münsterhof plaza on 23–24 February 1350.
Count Johann II was arrested for two years, Rapperswil and its castle were destroyed by the Zürich troops, and Brun's opponents executed or banned.
During Züriputsch in September 1839, several thousand putschists stormed the city from the west, and fought the cantonal troops in the alleys between Paradeplatz and Münsterhof.
In 1938, the plaza was rebuilt at its south-westerly side towards Poststrasse as it is today,[22] now mainly being a parking facility nearby the pedestrian zones at Bahnhofstrasse, Paradeplatz and Limmatquai.
Dölf Wild, chief archaeologist of the 2014–15 excavations, told in an interview: "For 700 years, Münsterhof was the stage of large gatherings, and will it soon be again, after a rather sad interlude as [a] parking facility.
The Zürich archaeologists also secured grave furnishings, which will be presented along with the findings of the excavations in 1977–78 as part of an "archaeological window" into the Fraumünster's crypt.
[10] In 2015, the city archaeologists (Amt für Städtebau) also identified a 600-year-old badge of Charlemagne on his horse discovering the graves of the martyrs Felix and Regula.