Büchenbronn Observation Tower

The Büchenbronn observation tower at the Eichberg, also called Büchenbronn height ( 608.5 m above sea level. NN ), near Pforzheim was built in 1883 in his delicate form. It is thus perhaps the oldest steel truss tower in the world. The client was the Beautification Association Pforzheim. Was carried out of the tower as octagonal, cast iron tube frame construction made ​​of iron profiles and iron pipes of the company Louis Kuehne from Dresden. Plan drawings can still be found in the town hall Büchenbronn. The tower height is 24.75 meters, the tower is over 125 steps on a spiral staircase that runs around four standing in the square tubes in the tower center, be climbed. On the stability of already wrote 1885, the German Bauzeitung "... that the tower can already be rotated by a single visitor with ease in rather large fluctuations ". After minor repairs to the tower in 1926 had to be thoroughly overhauled. The tower belonged to the Beautification Association until 1933, then to 1974, the Black Forest Association ( the in 1948 a smaller and in 1957/58 could carry a greater restoration) and is since 1974 owned by the City of Pforzheim. The last renovation took place after the storm " Lothar " of 25 December 1999.

Similar towers with almost the same dimensions were built in 1883 on the Götzinger height in Neustadt in Saxony and in 1896 as Spelunkenturm in Bad Pyrmont.