Hurden

Hurden
Former municipality
Seedamm and Hurden, as seen from Frohberg hill in Kempraten-Lenggis, the Capuchin monastery in Rapperswil to the left, Pfäffikon in the background (March 2010)
Location of Hurden
Country	Switzerland
Canton	Schwyz
District	Höfe
Municipality	Freienbach
Area
• Total	1.31 km2 (0.51 sq mi)
Elevation	408 m (1,339 ft)
Population  (2008)
• Total	268
• Density	200/km2 (530/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (Central European Time)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (Central European Summer Time)
Postal code(s)	8640
SFOS number	1322
ISO 3166 code	CH-SZ
Surrounded by	Altendorf, Switzerland, Pfäffikon, Rapperswil
Website	www.freienbach.ch SFSO statistics

Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden as seen from Hurden, Rapperswil to the left, Jona to the right

Hurden and Obersee (upper Lake Zürich) as seen from Holzbrücke in Rapperswil

Kapelle zu Ehren der heiligsten Dreieinigkeit (Holy Trinity chapel) in Hurden

Hurden is a village in the municipality of Freienbach in the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland. First mentioned in 1217, the name "de Hurden" was used for the peninsula and for the fish traps made of woven work, called "Hürden" or "Hurden", which were used by the locals.

Geography

Hurden, Seedamm and Rapperswil on an aerial photography by Walter Mittelholzer (1929)

The village of Hurden is located on an peninsula protruding from the southern shore of Lake Zürich at its narrowest point. The peninsula has its origin in the retreat of the Linth glacier at the end of the last glacial period when Lake Zürich was formed. This retreat left a moraine across the valley now occupied by Lake Zürich. The higher southern section of this moraine extends above the lake's water level and forms the peninsular, whilst the lower northern section forms a shallow section in the otherwise deep lake. Together these separate Lake Zürich into two parts, the larger lower lake to the north-west, and the smaller upper lake (Obersee) to the east.

The artificial Seedamm uses a combination of artificial causeways and bridges to cross the shallow water between the tip of the peninsular to Rapperswil on the northern shore of the lake. To the west of the Seedamm, there is a wooden bridge for pedestrians (Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden), which was built in 2001 as a reconstruction of the first bridge between eastern and western lakesides.

Since the construction of the Hurden ship canal, across the base of the peninsular, the natural peninsular has been transformed into an artificial island.

History

Around 1523 BC, a first wooden footbridge led across Lake Zurich between Rapperswil and Hurden, followed by several reconstructions at least until late 2nd century AD when the Roman Empire built 6 meters (20 ft) wide wooden bridge under Empire Marcus Aurelius (161-180). In 981, a ferry from Kempraten to the Ufenau island is mentioned, probably there was also a ferry to the other lakeside used by pilgrims on the old pilgrimage routes, the so-called Jakobsweg to the Einsiedeln Abbey. By 1358, ferry services between Rapperswil and Hurden are mentioned. Between 1358 and 1360, Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, built a wooden bridge across the lake that has been used to 1878 – measuring approximately 1,450 meters (4,760 ft) in length and 4 meters (13 ft) wide. A small wooden bridge from Ufenau island to Hurden is mentioned around 1430, so-called «Kilchweg in die Uffnow». During Old Zürich War, in 1443 the bridge was set in fire, and as a result of the Second Battle of Villmergen in 1712, Hurden was reigned by the Protestant cantons of Zürich, Bern and Glarus.

During Helvetic Republic, in 1798, Hurden became part of the new established Distrikt Rapperswil in the Canton of Linth, and in 1803 it was part of the new established Pfäffikon. In 1873, the Swiss federal parliament approved the construction of the today's stone dam and bridge.

In 1943, southern Hurden was divided by the construction of the Hurden ship canal, which connected the upper to the lower Lake Zürich. Now the ships of the Zürichsee-Schifffahrtsgesellschaft (ZSG) were able to pass from Lake Zürich to the upper Lake Zürich, and the peninsula actually was a real island which was cut off from the mainland. Beginning in 1990, luxurious villas were widely built in Hurden, which in part on newly reclaimed area created for and with a private harbour.

In 2001, a new wooden footbridge was opened alongside the dam for the first 840 meters (2,760 ft) meters of the crossing. It was built in quite the same place as the original bridge linking Rapperswil with the nearby bridge chapel (Heilig Hüsli). The Seedamm area including the remains of the prehistoric wooden bridges respectively stilt house settlements in Freienbach and Rapperswil is listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance.

Transportation

Besides the road and railway transport lines crossing Seedamm, Hurden railway station is a stop of the Zürich S-Bahn on the lines S5 and S40 (provided by Südostbahn) situated.

External links

Media related to Hurden at Wikimedia Commons

• Hurden in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
• Hurden - wie es war Template:De icon