The Black Tower is a tower castle in the Swiss city of Brugg. It is the oldest building and landmark of the city. It is located on the northern edge of the old town, next to the bridge, which leads over a narrow point of the Aare and gave the city its name.
The construction of the tower took place in the last quarter of the 12th century and was probably by Count Albrecht III. arranged by Habsburg. The headquarters of the Habsburgs, the Habsburg, is only a few kilometers away and the little later resulting city served for a time as the residence of the Habsburg counts. In 1238 the Black Tower was first mentioned in a document.
Since some of the walls had been used for the construction, which came from the ruins of the nearby legion camp Vindonissa, it was long assumed that the tower was of Roman origin and therefore mistakenly called it the "Roman Tower". Only in the 19th century was it realized that the material had been reused and that the tower had been built at least 800 years later than expected.
After the bridge was rebuilt in 1532, the tower was too small for the city rulers. Three years later, therefore, the top walls and the roof were demolished and then new upper floors were bricked up; As a result, the tower was raised by about five meters. On the north side, towards the river, a bay window was added in 1536. Since the extension of the Town Hall on the south and west side in 1579, the Black Tower has remained unchanged. The tower was used from 1846 as a county jail; in the course of the centralization of the penal system, the cells were removed in November 2006.
The 25,70 meter high tower flanks the southern head of the Aare bridge and stands on the edge of a vertical falling rock. The floor plan is square with an edge length of 9.30 meters. The texture of the masonry makes it easy to see the two construction phases. The lower, built in the Middle Ages part, extends to a height of 13.50 meters and consists of reused masonry from shell limestone, which comes from the Legion Camp Vindonissa. A round arch on the north wall is decorated in Romanesque style and probably comes from a church that was demolished in the 11th century.
While the wall thickness at the bottom of a thickness of 2.30 meters, it tapers in the upper part to 1.10 meters. The part of the tower, which was erected in 1535, consists of tufa blocks. The conclusion is a hipped roof.
On the west and south sides of the Black Tower is enclosed by the town hall. The three-storey building was built in 1579 in the late Gothic style, on the west side of a semicircular stair tower is added. Since the reconstruction in 1758/59, it has its present appearance