Heinzenturm

The Heinzenturm (No. 37)

The Heinzenturm , which was also called the Hinzenturm or Hennessenthurm , was a defense tower of the Aachen city wall, which was built between 1257 and 1357 . It no longer exists since 1881. The Aachen Heinz street is named after this earlier building.

location

The tower was located about 200 meters from the Kölntor and was only separated from it within the city fortifications by the Schänzchen defense tower . At the same time, the Sandkaultor city gate was directly adjacent to it.

architecture

The defense tower had three floors, which were connected to each other by a spiral staircase. The upper two floors had a fireplace and a closet.

The building was erected as a round tower with a weather vane. The rooms had domed vaults. While the upper floor had shooting hatches, the two lower floors had loopholes.

Say about the tower

The tower is said to have had a trap door that enabled the Hinzen and Heinzenmännchen to enter a cave system. They use this after they were expelled from the Emmaburg . At night the Hinzen and Heinzenmännchen came and played pranks on the messy townspeople and drunken soldiers. After the tower was demolished, the Hinzen and Heinzenmännchen also disappeared from Aachen.

history

Due to the increasing modernity of weapons, the wall thickness of the building was no longer sufficient and it was decided in the 17th century to increase the wall thickness. For this purpose, parts of the tower were removed and the material could be used to thicken the walls. It should be able to keep cannonballs away. At the same time, this served the purpose of being able to position your own guns on the roof in order to shoot the enemy from there.

The Heinzenturm was demolished in 1881.

literature

Bruno Lerho : The great Aachen city wall with gates and towers . Helios Verlag, Aachen 2006, ISBN 3-938208-37-6 .
Carl Rhoen : The fortifications of the free imperial city of Aachen . Anton Creutzer, Aachen 1894, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-230540 ( ISL Aachen [PDF; accessed on May 7, 2016]).
Ludwig Bechstein: The Hinzlein to Aachen. In: Deutsches Sagenbuch. Zeno.org, accessed May 12, 2009 .