Stone gate tower

The stone gate tower is the mightiest gate tower of the Neustädter city wall in Brandenburg an der Havel . It is one of the former eight, today four remaining gate towers of the two cities of Brandenburg and is part of the medieval fortification that once comprised ten gates. In the tower is the museum in the Steintorturm , one of the two branches of the Brandenburg City Museum .

Streets

The stone gate protected the arterial road to the southwest of the Neustadt Brandenburg. The most important long-distance trade route that began from the Middle Ages to modern times was the Heerstrasse to Magdeburg , which led via Ziesar . Other important trade routes led via Belzig to Wittenberg and Zerbst . In the direction of the city, Steinstrasse leads from the gate to the northeast to the Neustädtischer Markt , the central square of the district or the former city.

Shape and location

The stone gate tower seen from the southwest

The stone gate tower, built in the first half of the 15th century, has the floor plan of a cylinder 32.5 m high and 11 m in diameter. A stone tablet attached to the outside of the tower at the beginning of the 20th century states that it was built as 1380. However, this date cannot be documented . The first documentary mention of the tower dates from 1433 and describes the use of the tower as a prison. The wall thickness of the tower tapers towards the top from 3.53 m to 2.27 m. The stairs are embedded in this wall ring. The tower is completely made of Brandenburg brick . Six floors are housed in the tower shaft, whereby the lowest was used as a city prison in the Middle Ages and the top floor is open at the top and is protected by a battlement . The gate tower is covered by a cone, which in turn is crowned by a wrought-iron eagle.

The stone gate tower was the only one of the medieval gate towers in Brandenburg an der Havel to have a heating system with which the second, third and fourth floors could be heated.

The stone gate is integrated into a weir system reinforced by a watercourse. In the direction of the former communication to the Malerker-, Lehniner- or St. Annentor in the new town of Brandenburg an der Havel, i.e. on the south-western side of the new town's Heidestrasse, a town house built in 1911 nestles against the tower shaft, with a walkway open in arched arcades on the ground floor for pedestrians.

use

inscription

In the Middle Ages, the tower served to secure the stone gate of the new town of Brandenburg and as a prison. The most prominent inmate is the Brandenburg patrician son Peter Wannemacher, who was also documented and who was imprisoned for ten weeks for participating in a revolt in 1622 and who was immortalized on the inner wall of the tower with numerous inscriptions that are still visible today.

In 1886 the Historic Association of the City of Brandenburg an der Havel began using the tower's premises as an exhibition space. From these beginnings, today's Brandenburg City Museum developed on the Havel, to which the museum in the Steintorturm next to the museum in the Frey-Haus currently belongs as a separate museum unit. Among other things, the tower houses a permanent exhibition on Havel shipping. The tower can be visited and climbed between April and October for an entrance fee.

literature

Friedrich Grasow: Brandenburg, the millennial city - A walk through the culture and architecture of past centuries. Self-published by the city of Brandenburg; Brandenburg an der Havel 1928.
Chronicle of the city of Brandenburg. Published by the Urban History Working Group of the City of Brandenburg an der Havel in the Brandenburgischer Kulturbund e. V., Verlag B. Neddermeyer, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-933254-40-X .
Marcus Cante: Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany. Monuments in Brandenburg, City of Brandenburg an der Havel. Volume 1.1: Cathedral Island - Old Town - New Town. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms am Rhein 1994, ISBN 3-88462-105-X .