A few years ago, a priest’s maid who wore iron shoes had to walk from the Kalktaren up to the Bühlbrücke in the so-called Kapellentobel.

At that time, there was a lime kiln in the Kalktaren, and when lime was being burned there, this priest’s maid came with the request to be allowed to crawl into the lime kiln, but was told that this would render the kiln useless; however, she would then be redeemed and go to heaven.

The lime burner allowed her to do so. Soon a white dove flew out of the kiln, and afterwards the priest’s maid was never seen again, and the kiln really became unusable.

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Editor’s note: What is going on here? This lady had clearly not happy with her role, perhaps she and the Priest had enjoyed a moment and she was consumed by shame. The iron shoes are an odd detail. It also appears that the Swiss attitude to assisted suicide has some heritage.

The word used “Pfaffenkellnerin” actually translates to “Priest’s Waitress”, but that doesn’t seem quite right. I don’t know what the correct translation of “Kalktaren” is, perhaps a storehouse for lime. There is a school and street near Zurich with that name but that doesn’t really help.

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335. Der Kalkofen

Vor wenigen Jahren noch habe im sogenannten Kapellentobel eine Pfaffenkellnerin, die eiserne Schuhe trug, von der Kalktaren bis hinauf zur Bühlbrücke wandeln müssen.

In der Kalktaren sei damals ein Kalkofen gestanden, und als dort Kalk gebrannt worden, sei diese Pfaffenkellnerin mit der Bitte eingekommen, in den Kalkofen kriechen zu dürfen, sagte aber, dadurch werde der Ofen unbrauchbar; sie aber werde dann erlöst und komme in den Himmel. Der Kalkbrenner gestattete ihr dieses. Bald darauf sei eine weisse Taube aus dem Ofen geflogen, und nachher sei die Pfaffenkellnerin nie mehr gesehen worden, der Ofen sei aber wirklich unbrauchbar geworden.

Picture generated by Midjourney