Citizen Tower (Lindenfels)

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The citizen tower in Lindenfels

The citizen tower in Lindenfels in the Odenwald is a building of the former city fortifications. Today it serves as an observation tower and as an exhibition space for the German Dragon Museum , which was set up in Lindenfels in 2010.

history

The citizen's tower is originally a 19 m high round tower, which was built in connection with the construction of the city wall after the city charter was granted in 1336 in the 14th century. A merian engraving from 1645 shows the tower with a spire flanked by 5 small turrets.

The tower was partially demolished in the 18th century, and various renovation work was carried out around 1888, 1926 and 1968. In 1986 a spiral staircase was installed, later an octagonal glass pyramid was built over the interior as weather protection.

description

The citizen tower is a round tower made of granite blocks with a diameter of 8 m. The 2 m thick outer walls rise up to a height of 19 m, with rounded arches in the parapet area and a slight overhang. On the northwest side is the former entrance opening at a height of 7.75 m, which is now closed with a metal grille. The dungeon, which was only accessible through a ceiling opening, used to be in a room below this.

Today's access to the tower is on the south-southwest side near the neighboring Evangelical Church. After entering the tower, the interior lighting is switched on by motion detectors in order to illuminate the dragon images on the walls. A free-standing steel spiral staircase leads to the 17.90 m high viewing platform , which can be reached through a door in the glass pyramid. For safety reasons, a slightly higher metal parapet has been installed inside the parapet wall. There is an intermediate platform and some loopholes in the tower at the level of the former entrance opening. Due to the construction of the glass pyramid, the tower now has a height of approx. 23 m (without the weather vane at the top). The viewing platform offers a good all-round view of Lindenfels and the surrounding area.

  • Entrance door and panels on the tower

  • The spiral staircase with a view of the glass pyramid

Web links

Commons : Citizen Tower  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ Historical city tour, 7th station: The citizen tower on the Lindenfels website
  2. ↑ a b Height information according to measurements taken privately

Coordinates: 49 ° 40 ′ 58.6 ″  N , 8 ° 46 ′ 46 ″  E