City Tower
The towns landmark, the City Tower, is with a height of 50 m one of the most important monuments in the area. The construction of the city tower was started in 1306 at the north side of the city walls. Initially, the tower was built as a fortified tower for
the protection of the Licher citizens. It is built of basalt stones with a thickness at its base of about 3 to 4 m. It's nowadays appearance is characterized by three traceable periods. The original fortified tower with a total height of 30 m was covered by merlons and had a walk way around
its conical end. Count Reinhard of Solms started to set up a new and higher top with a bell cage and a small bell tower around 1540. This new construction was assembled from oak wood and also contained for the first time a mechanical clock. The last reconstruction was started around 1625 during the Thirty Years War.
At that time the top was changed again to its nowadays appearance.
The tower had a flat for the tower watchman. Till 1912 the tower was used as a watch tower, when the last tower watchman, Johann Adam Schmidt, retired at the age of 79. He lived more than 5 decades in the tower flat, watching out for fires in the city and ringing the bells.
Still the tower is bell tower to neighboring Marienstiftskirche with three bells from the 15th and 18th century.
On the ground floor there is the old dungeon keep.
Following an extensive renovation in 2009/2010 the tower is now open for visitors (details in the Tourist Information), who can enjoy a beautiful panoramic view across the rooftops of Lich and the Vogelsberg area after climbing some 150 steps up to the former flat of the tower watchman.
The old City Walls can be seen at many places, a good part is used as wall for houses.
