Katzenturm (Feldkirch)

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The cat tower in Feldkirch
Access to the cat tower with remains of the city wall

The Katzenturm is a defense tower built in 1507 as part of the city wall in Feldkirch, Austria ( Vorarlberg ).

history

The eight-story, round tower is part of Feldkirch's city ​​fortifications , which was built under the German King Maximilian I and the Habsburg Vogt Hans von Königsegg from 1491 to 1507. As a result of the Swabian War , the tower was raised again in 1500, so that construction dragged on until 1507.

In the 17th century it was rebuilt as a bell tower. On that occasion, in 1665, the big bell was hung in the tower because the town's church towers were too small for it.

During the city fire in August 1697, the Katzenturm was destroyed, but then rebuilt. The tower is 40 m high and has a circumference of 38 m.

The name of the tower comes from cannons formerly stationed on it, which were provided with cat and lion heads as sighting devices.

Cat tower bell

In the bell room hangs the largest bell in Vorarlberg, which is also the second largest historical bell in Austria. It is the sixth largest bell in Austria and the property of the city of Feldkirch. The bell, which was originally cast in Lindau in 1665, had to be cast over ten years later due to a crack. It fell down in the town fire in 1697 and was re-cast. The current bell was cast in 1857 from the one from 1697 in the workshop of Josef Anton Grassmayr . The wooden bell chair also dates from this time. From 1962, an electric drive replaced the eight men previously required to ring the bell. The old wooden yoke was replaced by a deep cranked steel yoke in the 1980s. This resulted in a high ringing angle and such a hard stop that the clapper broke and was welded twice within a relatively short time. Fortunately, the valuable bell survived this excessive strain without cracking. In preparation for the elimination of the problem, the bell was weighed in 2009, which resulted in a weight almost a ton higher than the weight indicated on it (7500 kg). The Perner company in Passau rebuilt the system in 2010, replaced the steel yoke with an oak wood yoke, and hung in a new clapper weighing 450 kg. The lace catcher from the 1980s, which also placed excessive strain on the bell, was removed. Since 2010, the bell has been driven by two electronically controllable ringing motors for the purpose of gently rising and falling. The bell is rung on high public holidays, on Fridays at 3 p.m. (the hour of Christ's death) and during the grape harvest on the Ardetzenberg.

After it was discovered in autumn 2018 that a crack in the wooden yoke that had been observed for a long time had become larger during the previous, relatively hot summer, the bell was shut down. After installing a new oak wood yoke, it has been playing again since March 2019.

Surname
  		Casting year
  		Caster
  		Diameter
(mm) 		Weight
(kg) 		Nominal
( GT -16ths)
Cat tower bell 1857 Josef Anton Grassmayr II . 2430 (alternative information: 2380) 8573 (alternative information: 8450) f 0 +4
The Katzenturm bell rings on Fridays at 3 p.m. (photo taken from the inner courtyard of the Liechtenstein Palace, where the traffic noise is less disturbing)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Jörg Wernisch: Bell customer of Austria . Journal, Lienz no year [2006], pp. 412–413.
  2. ↑ a b Feldkirch (Vorarlberg) The Katzenturm bell rings after the yoke renovation! Accessed December 11, 2019 (German).
  3. ↑ Feldkirch Katzenturm - TurmTechnikTirol . In: TurmTechnikTirol . ( turmtechnik.tirol [accessed on November 26, 2018]).
  4. ↑ a b c The bell of the cat tower in Feldkirch. Retrieved December 22, 2018 .
  5. ^ "Vorarlberger Nachrichten" of October 29, 2018
  6. ↑ Monika Witwer: New Eichenholzjoch lets Feldkirch's cat tower bell ring again. Retrieved December 11, 2019 .

Web links

Commons : Cat Tower  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

Coordinates: 47 ° 14 ′ 19 ″  N , 9 ° 35 ′ 47 ″  E