3.
Blue House (2 nd Floor)
View of the courtyard
Notable guests

The Blue House
The Reichensteinerhof
Second Floor – View from the Windows
In both wings of the building, there are now offices, with no notable historical features.
The central wing, used jointly with the Wendelstörferhof, originally housed the storage and packing areas of the silk ribbon trade.
A dyeing workshop on the ground floor, set in a groin-vaulted room, extended all the way to the Wendelstörferhof.
The monumental roof structure rests on paired lying rafters, reinforced by large Saint Andrew’s cross-braces.
Tie rods support a central suspension that carries a main beam running the full length of the building.
Lukas Sarasin had planned to add a small belvedere tower to the ridge of the main building, but the project was never realized.
Instead, the building’s southern chimney was converted into an observation platform.
Notable Visitors
During the passage of the Allied army in 1813/14, Emperor Francis I of Austria stayed in the building, where he dined with Tsar Alexander of Russia and King Frederick William III of Prussia.
Credit:
Mrs. Sarah Hummel-Smit
Architect specialised in historic monuments and heritage conservation