The Role of the Central Element in the Quantum Algebra Underlying the Twisted XXZ Chain

We study the relationship among the XXZ Heisenberg model and three models obtained from it by various transformations. In particular, we emphasize the role of a non trivial central element $t^Z$ in the underlying algebra and its relationship with the twisted boundary conditions, $S^{\pm}_{N+1}=t^{\pm N}S^{\pm}_1$.