Sparkling wine where there were once sausages

The Restaurant Fischmärt is pursuing plans for expansion. The cantonal office for the  preservation of historical monuments will also have a say in this.

For a long time, it has been unclear what would happen to the former butcher's shop in the heart of the old town of Zug, which had been empty since the beginning of 2019. It’s now clear: it will house a bar. A recently submitted building application provides information on this. This shows that the owner, Fischmarkt Immobilien AG, is planning a breakthrough to the adjacent Restaurant Fischmärt. The responsible parties do not wish to comment further on the project, however.

The submitted documents show that the restaurant tenant wants to set up additional tables, with 33 seats, and to hold banquets in the lower part of the former butcher's shop. The upper part, where the large meat and cheese counter once stood, is to become a bar for up to 23 people, who would be able to sip "national and internationally known" cocktails during the week up to 11.30 p.m., and up to 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. In the documents relating to the building application, the tenant refers to the "beautifully curved" plaster ceiling as the "heart" of the building application. This will become particularly prominent in the future with the help of lighting.

The Restaurant Fischmärt wants to set up a bar in the former butcher's shop (on the right).
The Restaurant Fischmärt (left) wants to expand into the former butcher's shop (right).
Photo: Matthias Jurt (Zug, 14 April 2021)
Until the spring of 2019, the Rogenmoser butcher shop was located at the foot of the Zytturm. Here the view of the lower floor.
Photo: Maria Schmid (Zug, 24 January 2019)

There was a butcher's shop here for 157 years,
Early rumours of the setting up of a bar in the historic space at the foot of the Zytturm soon made the rounds after the Rogenmoser butcher’s shop decided to leave at the beginning of 2019. The Aklin butcher's shop had operated there up to 2009. This ended a long family tradition, as the "Hausgeschichten (House Stories)" brochure of 2017 reports: Josef Aklin bought the house in 1787, and opened a restaurant on the upper floor and a bakery on the lower floor. This was replaced by a butcher's shop in 1862. The existing shop, in which a bar is to be located for the first time, has only been available in this form since a renovation in 1914/15.

In view of the significant surroundings, the Cantonal Office for the Preservation of Monuments (Denkmalpflege) naturally also wants to have a voice in the redevelopment plans. Both houses are listed in the inventory of monuments worthy of protection. "The interventions are assessed according to conservation criteria," writes the preservationist Franziska Kaiser on request. She could not comment specifically on the specific project due to the ongoing proceedings.