The past of the Sihlwald
The Sihlwald as a commercial forest
For a long time, the Sihlwald forest served as a wood supply for the Fraumünster Abbey and later for the city of Zurich.
Did you know that the Sihlwald once belonged to the Fraumünster Abbey? Find out more in this year's issue of «Wildnis» magazine (German only).
For centuries, the Sihlwald served as an important source of firewood and timber. In 1309 AD, the city of Zurich received the forest to the left of the Sihl from the Habsburgs. The forest to the right of the Sihl had belonged to the Fraumünster Abbey since 853. The Abbey was dissolved during the Reformation in 1524 and handed over to the city along with its lands.
In the middle of the 19th century, a narrow-gauge forest railroad was built in the Sihlwald to increase the efficiency of timber extraction. Until 1991, today's Visitor Center of the Nature Discovery Park was a workplace with a sawmill, school and post office where the wood was processed. For many years, the forest was a hive of activity: the shouts of workers, the crash of falling trees, the clanging of axes and the rattling of the forest railroad filled the air.
A new chapter began with the closure of the work site and the establishment of the «Naturlandschaft Sihlwald» foundation (1994): The focus increasingly shifted to nature conservation. Forest management finally ceased completely in 2000, and since then the Sihlwald has slowly returned to wilderness and is one of the 20 parks of national importance.
You can find out more about the history of the Sihlwald in our exhibition in the visitor center.
