Alter Saarkran
The Alter Saarkran stands in Saarbrücken, Germany, beside the Saar River as a reconstructed Baroque harbour crane.
The crane was originally called Saarkrahnen in Saarbrücken.
Prince Wilhelm Heinrich of Saarbrücken-Nassau ordered the original crane for the city’s trade infrastructure in the early 1760s.
It transferred goods between Saar ships and carts.
Unlike floating cranes, this land-based treadwheel design stood inside an octagonal wooden crane house.
Its sandstone base supports a mansard roof with dormer windows.
A rotating upper section carried the crane arm, whose tip displayed a gilded eagle with spread wings.
The original crane operated from 1762 until 1852.
After a steel crane replaced it, railway development and new harbour facilities made that successor obsolete.
The A620 construction revealed its original foundation in the early 1960s.
Fundraising in the mid-1980s supported reconstruction on the same site, south of the Wilhelm-Heinrich Bridge.
The present structure was erected between 1989 and 1991 as a technical monument.
The structure links Saarbrücken’s Baroque heritage with its industrial past.
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- Saarbrücken
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Image: ungenanntPublic domain 
Image: AnRo0002CC0 
Image: AnRo0002CC0
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