With its varied façades, the Old City Hall, which was built in 1422 as a merchants’ and excise building, is the jewel of Esslingen. The south face is adorned with ”Allemanisch” timber-framing, while the northern face was extensively modernized during the renaissance, and since then has sported a small, two-story clock tower. Inside the clock tower is a glockenspiel, which was donated by the citizens of Esslingen in 1926 on the occasion of the building’s renovation. The glockenspiel has a repertoire of 200 tunes, which can be heard at various times throughout the day. The preserved original clock mechanism from the astronomical clock of 1591 is among the oldest in Germany. The wings of an eagle, the heraldic emblem of the former imperial city, beat in accordance with the striking of the hour.
References:The Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg is situated in a strategic area on a rocky spur overlooking the Upper Rhine Plain, it was used by successive powers from the Middle Ages until the Thirty Years' War when it was abandoned. From 1900 to 1908 it was rebuilt at the behest of the German kaiser Wilhelm II. Today it is a major tourist site, attracting more than 500,000 visitors a year.
The first records of a castle built by the Hohenstaufens date back to 1147. The fortress changed its name to Koenigsburg (royal castle) around 1157. The castle was handed over to the Tiersteins by the Habsburgs following its destruction in 1462. They rebuilt and enlarged it, installing a defensive system designed to withstand artillery fire.
The fortification work accomplished over the 15th century did not suffice to keep the Swedish artillery at bay during the Thirty Years War, and the defences were overrun.