At 16 Chernel Street you will find the medieval Zwinger, also known as the Old Bastion. It was built in the 14th century and served as the southwestern corner bastion of the former city wall during wartime. The wall extended 10 meters from the outer wall, providing a gateway to the Sarkos Bastion, or Little Zwinger (at 12 Chernel Street). The building was called the Old Bastion until the 1700s, and it was in this century that the inhabitants began to call the building Zwinger.
The Old Tower was part of medieval castles throughout Europe. This part of the castle was considered the innermost core of the castle, which had to be defended with all the strength of the castle’s army, even if the rest of the castle was already occupied by the enemy. In castles, the old tower played the role of the citadel in fortified towns, i.e. if the castle fell, the defenders would move into the tower.
The old bastion, one of the strongest and tallest, was initially a rectangular and later a smaller spherical structure rising above all the castle’s defenses. If necessary, the tower could be separated from the bastions. As part of its defensive function, it had an underground exit leading outside the castle and the city. It is not known whether the Zwinger in Kőszeg had such a secret tunnel system, but if it did, it may have been covered up over the centuries. In everyday life the tower was also used as a residential building. The Zwinger at 16 Chernel Street has two levels and a cellar. The building has served several functions over the centuries, including defense, as a pantry, a storeroom and, according to some sources, a prison. Food was stored on the lower floors of the building. After the tower lost its defensive role, it was used for various purposes, and in the 1820s the idea of converting it into a theatre was mooted. During this time, a German theatre company, such as Flár Vilmos Flár, was in Kőszeg, for whom the town wanted to build a permanent theatre. The plans were never realized. The building was only renovated in 1965 according to the plans of the former Austrian architect János Sedlmayr, winner of the Ybl Prize. The building was renovated in 2015 as part of the KRAFT program in Kőszeg. Today it is one of the buildings of the Institute of Advanced Studies Kőszeg, where educational activities, lectures, and exhibitions are held.