Witch tower or Witches' Tower (German : Hexenturm) is a common name or description in English and other European languages for a tower that was part of a medieval town wall or castle, often used as a prison or dungeon.
Witch tower or Witches' Tower (German : Hexenturm) is a common name or description in English and other European languages for a tower that was part of a medieval town wall or castle, often used as a prison or dungeon.
The name is derived from the period of witch trials. Many of these towers were used [ citation needed ] to incarcerate those suspected or found guilty of witchcraft.
Other witch towers were named later, for example in the 19th century when they were used as prisons or ordinary towers in the city walls.
Witch towers are found in many German towns and cities such as Aschersleben, Coburg, Frankenberg (Eder), Fulda, Gelnhausen, Geseke, Heidelberg, Herborn, Hofheim am Taunus, Idstein, Jülich, Kaufbeuren, Lahnstein, Landsberg am Lech, Marburg, Markdorf, Memmingen, Olpe, Rheinbach, Rüthen, Treysa, Windecken. Today these towers are sometimes renovated and used to house museums.
According to legend, witches were burnt at the stake at the Witches' Tower at the Wildensteiner Burg. With trials from the region of the Upper Danube valley may be seen in the archives.
In Babenhausen, a special beer, the Hexe ("Witch") is brewed which depicts on its label the local witch tower.
In Salzburg there is a witch tower in the city walls dating to the 15th century that was used as a prison and, later, as a store. In 1944 it was destroyed by a bomb and the ruins were torn down. Only a picture on the facade of Wolf Dietrich Straße and Paris Lodron Straße recalls this building.
Herborn is a historic town on the Dill in the Lahn-Dill district of Hesse in Germany. Before World War I, it was granted its own title as Nassauisches Rothenburg. The symbol or mascot of this town is a bear. Scenic attractions include its half-timbered houses; Herborn is located on the German Timber-Frame Road. Herborn hosted the 26th Hessentag state festival in 1986, and the 56th Hessentag in 2016.
Hofheim is the administrative centre of Main-Taunus-Kreis district, in the south of the German state of Hesse. Its population in September 2020 was 39,946.
Idstein is a town of about 25,000 inhabitants in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the Regierungsbezirk of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. Because of its well preserved historical Altstadt it is part of the Deutsche Fachwerkstraße, connecting towns with fine fachwerk buildings and houses. In 2002, the town hosted the 42nd Hessentag state festival.
Eppstein is a town in the Main-Taunus-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. Eppstein lies west of Frankfurt am Main, around 12 km north east of the state capital Wiesbaden, and is at the edge of the Taunus mountains. The ruins of the Eppstein castle is a prominent landmark, and houses a museum.
Zeilsheim is a quarter of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is part of the Ortsbezirk West and is subdivided into the Stadtbezirke Zeilsheim-Ost, Zeilsheim-Süd and Zeilsheim-Nord.
Rüthen is a town in the district of Soest, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Schwalmstadt is the largest town in the Schwalm-Eder district, in northern Hesse, Germany. It was established only in 1970 with the amalgamation of the towns of Treysa and Ziegenhain together with some outlying villages to form the town of Schwalmstadt.
Kapuzinerberg is a hill on the eastern bank of the Salzach river in the city of Salzburg in Austria, which rises to an elevation of 640 metres (2,100 ft). It is located to the north of Salzburg's historic city centre, and forms part of the city's UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Mönchsberg, at 508 meters (1,667 ft) above sea level, is one of five mountains in the city of Salzburg in Austria. It flanks the western side of Salzburg's historic city centre, and forms part of the city's UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The German Timber-Frame Road is a German tourist route leading from the river Elbe in the north to the Black Forest and Lake Constance in the south. Numerous cities and towns each with examples of the vernacular timber-framed houses traditional to the German states are situated along the road. The total length of the route is nearly 3,000 km (1,864 mi).
A powder tower, occasionally also powder house (Pulverhaus), was a building used by the military or by mining companies, frequently a tower, to store gunpowder or, later, explosives. They were common until the 20th century, but were increasingly succeeded by gunpowder magazines and ammunition depots. The explosion of a powder tower could be catastrophic as, for example, in the Delft Explosion of 1654.
Gießen railway station is the main railway station in Gießen, Hesse, Germany. The station is a Category 2 station is used by 20,000 passengers daily. The station was opened on 25 August 1850 and is located on the Main-Weser Railway and Dill railway. The current station reception building was built between 1904 and 1911. The main original station building is a historic landmark and has been protected. Outside the station is a bus station and a taxi rank. Parking garages are located nearby.
The County of Nidda (German: Grafschaft Nidda was a small county of the Holy Roman Empire centred on the city of Nidda in modern Wetteraukreis, Hesse. It was located on the northern edge of the Wetterau river valley and consisted of a relatively cohesive block of land held in fief from the Abbey of Fulda.
Ulrich IV, Lord of Hanau (1330/40–1380) was Lord of Hanau from 1369 or 1370 until his death. Based on the estimated year his parents married, he is assumed to have been born between 1330 and 1340. He was the son of Ulrich III of Hanau and Adelaide of Nassau.
Ulrich I, Lord of Hanau was the ruling Lord of Hanau from 1281 until his death.
Kaufering station is the station of the market town of Kaufering in the Upper Bavarian district of Landsberg am Lech. The station has five platform tracks and is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 4 station. It is used daily by about 140 trains operated by DB Regio and Regentalbahn and is an interchange station between the Munich–Buchloe railway and the Bobingen–Landsberg am Lech railway.
Idstein Castle, later the Renaissance style Schloss Idstein, is located in Idstein in the county of Rheingau-Taunus, Germany. The hill castle was the residenz of the counts of Nassau-Idstein. The castle's Witches' Tower (Hexenturm) is one of the town's oldest buildings and a substantial local landmark.
A butter-churn tower is a two-part defensive tower in which the upper section has a smaller width than the lower section.
