Haldimand tower
The Haldimand Tower ( French . Tour Haldimand ) is an artificial ruin in the form of a tower in Lausanne in Switzerland .
Location and architecture
The tower ruin is located in the Montchoisi district at the end of the Quai d'Ouchy on the border with the agglomeration of Pully . The building is located between Denantou Park and Lake Geneva and is encircled by an asphalt road, which is bordered by parking lots. In the 19th century the tower was still surrounded by the lake and was not yet on today's plateau .
The tower has a circular floor plan with a diameter of approximately 5 m . A base of roughly hewn field stones forms the base of the tower, in which there is a doorway with a Gothic pointed arch . The door inside is so thin that “an attacker could break it in without any problems”, which “calls into question the warlike use of the tower's loopholes”. There are two more floors above the basement, the facade of the upper floors is made of hewn sandstone.
history
In 1825, the three wealthy friends William Haldimand (1784–1862), Vincent Perdonnet (1768–1850) and Charles-Sigismund de Cerjat († 1848) in Lausanne decided to organize an architecture competition among themselves. The winner should be the one who was able to build the most beautiful artificial ruin tower in his respective place of residence. Haldimand was an English banker who had bought a country estate called Le Denantou near Lausanne in 1818 . Perdonnet was a financier from Lausanne whose residence Mon-Repos was surrounded by a private park. The officer Cerjat was also from Lausanne.
Haldimand built his tower on a headland of his Denantou Park on Lake Geneva. Perdonnet built his tower in Park Mon-Repos , where it is now behind the Federal Court . The Cerjat Tower was in the Rovéréaz Forest. Haldimand won with his tower.
In 2004 the tower was renovated. The inside of the tower is not accessible.
literature
- Ric Berger, Jean-Gabriel Linder: La contrée de Lausanne au cœur du Pays de Vaud: districts de Lausanne, de Cossonay et d'Echallens . Editions Cabédita, Yens-sur-Morges 1991, ISBN 288295056X .
Web links
- Haldimand tower near Lausanne
- Excursion to Tour Haldimand at Tourisme Suisse (French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Ric Berger: La contrée de Lausanne au coeur du Pays de Vaud . Editions Cabédita, Yens-sur-Morges 1991, pp. 92-95.
Coordinates: 46 ° 30 '18.5 " N , 6 ° 38' 29.5" E ; CH1903: 538815 / one hundred and fifty thousand seven hundred and thirty-six