Christoffelturm
Encyclopedia
Tower
A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....
built between the years 1344 and 1346. It was located in the old part of the Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
city of Bern, in the upper section of Spitalgasse, near Holy Spirit Church.
After a political decision on December 15, 1864, the Christoffelturm was removed by Gottlieb Ott
Gottlieb Ott
Gottlieb Ott was a Swiss building contractor. Ott and his company are credited with planning and constructing many buildings and structures in and around Berne, including the church field bridge...
, a Swiss building contractor. Ott began the destruction of the tower in spring of the following year.
The decision to remove the tower, which had become a landmark
Landmark
This is a list of landmarks around the world.Landmarks may be split into two categories - natural phenomena and man-made features, like buildings, bridges, statues, public squares and so forth...
of sorts, was not met without opposition, and the motion of removal succeeded only by a 415 to 411 vote.
During an extended period of time, other statues existed near or actually on the site where the tower used to stand. These included a statue of King David, both as a boy holding a slingshot
Slingshot
A slingshot, shanghai, flip, bean shooter or catapult is a small hand-powered projectile weapon. The classic form consists of a Y-shaped frame held in the off hand, with two rubber strips attached to the uprights. The other ends of the strips lead back to a pocket which holds the projectile...
, and as a man. The tower also featured a statue of Saint Christopher
Saint Christopher
.Saint Christopher is a saint venerated by Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians, listed as a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd century Roman Emperor Decius or alternatively under the Roman Emperor Maximinus II Dacian...
. An early 20th century plan to erect a figure of the Bernese knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
Rudolf von Erlach
Rudolf von Erlach (1299-1360)
Rudolf von Erlach was a knight and commander of the Swiss Confederation forces at the Battle of Laupen....
was never realised.
Other towers in Bern
Bern's other medieval guard towers are the ZytgloggeZytglogge
The Zytglogge tower is a landmark medieval tower in Bern, Switzerland. Built in the early 13th century, it has served the city as guard tower, prison, clock tower, centre of urban life and civic memorial....
and the Käfigturm
Käfigturm
The Käfigturm is a medieval tower in Bern, Switzerland. It is part of the UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Site of the Old City of Bern and the tower is a Cultural Property of National Significance The original tower was built as a gate house during the second expansion of Bern in 1256...
. These towers still stand today.
Zytglogge
In the Zytglogge (Clock Tower), a figure of the Greek god KronosCronus
In Greek mythology, Cronus or Kronos was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, divine descendants of Gaia, the earth, and Uranus, the sky...
or Chronos
Chronos
In Greek mythology, Chronos in pre-Socratic philosophical works is said to be the personification of time. His name in Greek means "time" and is alternatively spelled Chronus or Khronos.Chronos was imagined as an incorporeal god, serpentine in form, with three heads—those of a man, a bull, and...
strikes the bell
Bell (instrument)
A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...
atop the tower each hour.
The tower was originally of wood, when it was built sometime between 1218 and 1220. It survived until sometime in the very early 15th century, when it was burned down in the fire that struck the city in 1405.
However, it was rebuilt with a new stone
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
design, and has stood ever since. It was when it was rebuilt that it was fitted with a clock. The clock too, however, soon broke, and was left unserviced and broken for 122 years before 1530, when Caspar Brunner installed a new well-functioning mechanism
Mechanism (engineering)
A mechanism is a device designed to transform input forces and movement into a desired set of output forces and movement. Mechanisms generally consist of moving components such as gears and gear trains, belt and chain drives, cam and follower mechanisms, and linkages as well as friction devices...
.