At first glance, old towns are often seen as bastions of tradition and retreats of preserved history, as authentic remnants of past times, whose traces have long been erased elsewhere. At the same time, there is hardly a cohesive old town district in Western Europe that has not been the target of renovation campaigns over the last hundred years, where replacement new buildings have not been erected or significant restorations carried out. This also applies to Zurich's old town. Since the late 19th century and well into the 1950s, the medieval core of the city was the focus of renovation projects that aimed for a substantial replacement of the existing building substance. During the 1930s, a shift in attitude towards the old town can be observed: previously, plans for new developments had been considered repeatedly.