Turm 24 (Ehrentrude)

Turm 24 (Ehrentrude) stands in Linz as a surviving tower of the Maximilianische Turmlinie. Stone walls, brick vaults, an earthen glacis and a surrounding ditch shaped its defensive setting.

Archduke Maximilian Joseph of Austria-Este proposed the fortification after experiencing Napoleon’s advance in 1809. The system placed detached towers around Linz, allowing neighbouring positions to support one another with cannon fire. Construction began in 1831, and most structures stood complete by 1833. Military handover followed in 1838.

Three concentric rings formed the standard tower’s strong structure. Several levels contained living quarters and underground storage rooms. A rear drawbridge provided the entrance, while the glacis concealed everything except the upper section. The wider system included twenty-seven standard towers, five segment towers, two outworks, two casemated batteries and a fort on Pöstlingberg. Rifled artillery soon made these defences obsolete, and the system was abandoned in 1858. Turm 24 remains among the surviving witnesses to Linz’s nineteenth-century military architecture.