''Stauffacher'' is a

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

junction (lines 2, 3, 8, 9, 14) in

Aussersihl Aussersihl is a district in the Swiss city of Zürich. Known officially as District number 4, the district is known as colloquially ''Chreis Cheib'', ''cheib'' being the Zürich German word for an animal cadaver. It earned the name as the area h ...

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 443,037 inhabitants, the urban area 1.315 mill ...

, next to the St. Jakob church, situated along the ''Badenerstrasse'' between the ''Bäcker'' and the ''Stauffacher'' streets. The tram stop was named after the street, which had been named for

Werner Stauffacher Werner Stauffacher was supposedly the name of the representative of the canton of Schwyz, one of the three founding cantons at the legendary Rütlischwur of 1291, as told by Aegidius Tschudi. Many members of the Stauffacher family held the offi ...

in 1893. ''Stauffacher'' is officially just the name of the tram stop, not the square, and there was formerly a ''Stauffacherplatz'' some 200 m farther along the street towards the

Sihl The Sihl is a Swiss river that rises near the Druesberg mountain in the canton of Schwyz, and eventually flows into the Limmat in the centre of the city of Zürich. It has a length of , including the Sihlsee reservoir, through which the river fl ...

(named in 1898). Since the name of the tram stop induced common usage to associate ''Stauffacherplatz'' with the tram stop, leading to confusion with the actual ''Stauffacherplatz'', the latter was renamed to '' Ernst-Nobs-Platz'' in 2003. St. Jakob was the site of a sick-house outside the town of Zurich and an associated chapel since the 11th century. The first historical mention of the St. Jakob church dates to 1221. It was the site of the

Battle of St. Jakob an der Sihl The Battle of St. Jakob an der Sihl was a battle of the Old Zürich War that occurred on July 22, 1443, resulting in a defeat for Zürich. The battle took place outside the gates of Zürich, beyond the Sihl (today's Aussersihl district). The tr ...

in 1443. In 1677, the sick-house was transformed into a ''Pfrundhaus'' (senior citizens' residence), disestablished in 1842. The current St. Jakob church building was inaugurated in 1901.

External links

*http://www.offener-st-jakob.ch/ {{Authority control Squares in Zürich