It’s hard to miss the Franziskanerkirche – it’s the tall, yellow spire on the river opposite the Kunsthaus. You may wonder why an order devoted to poverty has such a ruddy big tower. Thanks to the Franziskanerkirche’s strategic position near the old city walls, the city authorities decided that it also needed to function as a defensive fortification. The tower was built in A.D. 1636-1643 and the onion dome was added in A.D. 1740.
