Hard tower

The Hardturm is a building from the Middle Ages , which belonged to the defensive line of Zurich and gave the whole area its name. It is the only secular building from the High Middle Ages that has survived in Zurich. The tower shaft consists of 3.5 m thick masonry up to a height of 6 m, which leaves a space of only 4 × 4 m, which was originally only accessible from above and possibly used as a dungeon, inside the tower. In the lower two residential floors, the wall thickness on the west and south sides facing away from the city and the river is still 2.5 m and has a narrow slit window to the west.

The square, four-storey tower with a pyramid roof and stair tower belonged to the outer medieval city fortifications of Zurich and was part of the Letzimauer . It was built in the second half of the 13th century and was first mentioned in a document in 1336. Until 1461, the Manesse family had the tower as a fief . It probably served to control the bridge crossing over the Limmat and was surrounded by a circular wall and a moat. The building has been privately owned since the 16th century. In the 17th century it was converted to its current form for residential use. From 1882 the tower served as a living and meeting room for the Schoeller family , who ran a flourishing worsted yarn factory and cloth dyeing shop on the Hardturm site. During the Second World War, two concrete shelters were built as part of the Limmat position as an observation post with a clear field of fire over the river. From 1974, all the property in the real estate and management company "Hardturm AG" flowed, the part of the textile manufacturer Albers & Co 's.

The Hardturm was placed under monument protection in 1964 and underwent extensive renovation in 1999.