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Origin and history

The covered bridges of Strasbourg form a defensive complex built between 1230 and 1250 on the arms of the river Ill to protect the city from attacks from this direction. Initiated by the Strasbourg bourgeois, these four original bridges (reduced to three today) were initially covered with wooden galleries towed with tiles, open to the city but closed and crenellated on the outside with murderers for artillery. In the 14th century, their wooden pillars were replaced by masonry piles, while in the 16th century, engineer Daniel Specklin strengthened their defensive system, supplemented by iron herses around 1570 to condemn river access in case of danger.

Between 1681 and 1688, engineer Jacques Tarade built upstream the Vauban dam, designed according to Vauban's plans, to flood the area in case of siege – a function used during the 1870 war. The roofs of the bridges were removed in 1784, and the wooden structures rebuilt in stone in 1865. Originally, five crenellated square towers (8.60 m side by side for 19 m high) marked the bridges, serving as prisons until 1823. Four remain today, classified as historical monuments since 1928, after the destruction of the Malzenturm in 1869. Their interior preserves graffiti of prisoners (500 motifs and 20 dates engraved between 1530 and 1595), poignant testimonies of their prison past.

The towers, with slanted murderers and crenelages, illustrated medieval military architecture. The Heinrichsturm (1229) is best preserved, with a primitive structure and small prison cells (on average 6.5 m2), while the Hans von Altheimturm was rebuilt in 1696 after a fire. The Tour du Bourreau (Henkersturm), renovated in 1746, and the Tour des Français complete this ensemble. Their defensive role declined with the construction of the Vauban Dam, but their heritage value continued, symbolizing Strasbourg's military and judicial history.

In the 19th century, after prison closure in 1823, the towers were partially reassigned before a restoration of the facades between 1977 and 1981. Today, they dominate the district of Petite France, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and recall the ingenuity of medieval urban defensive systems, mixing military functionality, vernacular architecture and prison memory.

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