Watch tower

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The spit tower at Spieskappel
Hausmannsturm control room belonging to Liebenburg (right) around 1520
City of Damgarten with the Jaromarsturm watch tower (on a tower hill ) on the border pass; the tower with high entrance and ladder (Stralsund illuminated manuscript, 1611-1615)

As a watchtower , waiting , Warth , Watchtower , Country Wait , Landturm or Castle Waiting is a mostly single-standing, often by Wall and moat surrounded observation tower called.

History and architecture

In the late Middle Ages, waiting towers were built, for example, on trade routes as customs posts or in the run-up to cities, in order to warn of the approach of enemy troops by means of flag or light signals. The name comes from the mhd. Word wait , peeking looking.

The entrance door of a guard tower was usually several meters high and in this case was only accessible via a ladder, which the tower guard pulled in in the event of danger. Some waiting towers fulfilled a castle-like function, examples of which are the Friedberger Warte in Frankfurt am Main or the Hellenwarte near Fritzlar . Since the late 15th century, guard towers have often been integrated into land defense services, as was the case with the Lindener Tower on Lindener Berg in Hanover .

The escort is a special case, which did not primarily fulfill a warning function for the urban defense, but, preferably erected on trade routes ( old streets ), was supposed to protect traveling traders to the edge of a ruled area and sometimes served as an escort station. One such example is the Berger Warte , verifiable since 1340 , a watch tower northeast of the city of Frankfurt am Main outside the city's Landwehr .

Examples

such as:

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Digital dictionary of the German language "Warte"

Web links

Commons : waiting towers  - collection of images, videos and audio files