Lucerne water tower

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Water tower and Chapel Bridge

The water tower in the middle of the Chapel Bridge is part of the historical city ​​fortifications of Lucerne .

The 35 meter high, octagonal and slightly inclined tower complements the city fortifications towards the lake . Its construction time cannot be determined with any certainty, but it was built after 1262, i.e. before the Chapel Bridge. Its history and its inner workings are extremely tense. For a long time it served as a defense and watchtower and as a cornerstone of the city fortifications. Over the years it was available as a city archive, treasury, and dungeon and torture chamber.

It is mentioned for the first time in 1367. The roof structure that still exists today can be dated to 1339. The tower has been rented to the Lucerne Artillery Association since 1939 . The tower is rare, and usually only open to the public in summer. Today it is considered a landmark of Lucerne.

Structure and use

There is a dungeon on the bottom floor of the tower . Its walls are three meters thick, there are no windows or doors. Access is only possible through an opening in the floor of the room above. Presumably the dungeon was used as a prison until 1759 and then abandoned. The so-called treasury is located on the first floor. It served as a prison as well as an interrogation and torture chamber until 1759 . From 1759 to 1798 treasury was kept here, from 1798 to 1803, the space again served as a prison in 1804 for safekeeping activities of the municipality . The second floor was the place where the Lucerne State Treasury and State Archives were kept until 1759 . When it was discovered in 1758 that money had been stolen for years, it was converted into a prison (until 1802). From 1804 to 1919 it again housed the city archive. The striking stork's nest on the top of the tower has not been used for over 100 years. The 15 meter high attic served u. a. as an interrogation room and torture chamber . Since 1892, Alpine swifts have been breeding here in a colony that is looked after by the Ornithological Society of the City of Lucerne (OGL), since 1959 on behalf of the Lucerne City Council. The alpine sailing colony in the water tower is the largest alpine sailing colony in Central Switzerland.

literature

  • Chapel Bridge and Water Tower: the reconstruction of a landmark as reflected in restoration and research. Lucerne 1998, ISBN 3-9520987-1-X .

Web links

Coordinates: 47 ° 3 ′ 4 "  N , 8 ° 18 ′ 26"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred and sixty-five thousand nine hundred ninety-eight  /  211485