Upper Tower (Aarau)

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Upper tower
Rear View (1879)

The Obere Turm (also called Obertor ) is a gate tower in Aarau in Switzerland . It is located on the edge of the old town on Holzmarkt, the intersection of Rathausgasse, Graben, Vorderer Vorstadt and Ziegelrain. With a height of 62 meters, the Upper Tower is a landmark of the city.

history

It is not known when exactly the tower was built. However, its formation is closely related to the founding of the city, which took place shortly before the middle of the 13th century. The tower was originally much less high; it reached roughly as far as the wall ledge in the middle and was possibly closed off by a crenellated wreath . At the turn of the 15th to the 16th century, the tower was raised with less thick walls.

In 1531 Hans Leu the Younger painted the clock face of the tower clock , in 1532 Hans Lutherer made the wheel clock , which has been preserved to this day. Heinrich Oeschly finally created the roof structure in 1533, on whose helmet a bell tower was placed. The current roof design has existed since 1580. As a result, apart from renovations, only minor changes were made to the exterior. The helmet was clad with copper sheet in 1753 , and in 1868 a copper ball with a wind vane was placed on it.

The Obertor, which is located directly next to the tower, was first mentioned in a document in 1359 and goes back to the earliest city fortifications. A kennel existed until the first city expansion (through the construction of a second wall ring) . The gatehouse has existed in its present form since at least 1612. From 1804 the gate remained open all night. The moat in front of the tower and gate was filled in in 1820. A year later, the Landjägerwache was built with a classical main facade. In 1928 the passage through the gate was widened for motorized traffic, and a second passage for pedestrians was created next to it.

building

Landjägerwache and Upper Gate

Together with the city ​​church and the Schlössli , the upper tower is a landmark in Aarau and dominates the cityscape in the center. With the tent roof and bell tower attached, the tower reaches a height of 62 meters. Since the moat was filled, its two lowest floors have reached below street level. The lower, older half of the tower consists of rough masonry with embossed , chipped-out local stones . The upper part, made of smooth blocks, is a little narrower. At regular intervals, are notches arranged.

The bottom five floors of the tower used to be used as prison cells, the ninth floor houses the tower clock. The tower watchman's apartment was on the tenth floor until 1876; the top floor contains a carillon with eleven bells. In the attached bell tower there are two more bells that were cast around the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. On the outside of the gatehouse, Felix Hoffmann's 1966 mural “Dance of Death” can be seen. A heraldic pyramid ( Reich -Aarau- Bern ) is attached as a relief above the gate opening .

Web links

Commons : Oberer Turm, Aarau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

Coordinates: 47 ° 23 '30.9 "  N , 8 ° 2' 40.1"  E ; CH1903:  645742  /  249186