Zwinger

The Linz Gate turns its back on us here. In the right-hand passage of the gate, we enter the Zwinger, the area between the outer and inner city walls. The name is derived from the word "zwang", which used to mean "narrow". The semi-circular tower directly in front of us is the so-called Bürgerkorpsturm. Do you have any idea what the long wooden pipes on display here were used for? They are parts of our first water supply pipes, which fed the five public fountains with water. They were found almost undamaged in the city moat. The tree trunks had been drilled through by hand and the larch wood had been coked to make it more durable in the ground.
durability in the ground. They could still be used today. The houses were only connected directly to the inner city wall and the windows installed from the 18th century onwards. Before that, there was a narrow passage between the wall and the houses, the so-called row. The battlements were located on the inner city wall. The outer city wall was characterised by a regular sequence of five embrasures and a pitch nose. You can see the remains of these on the façades to the east of Linzertor.