Erlabrunner Watchtower Ruin

Historically interesting place, unfortunately nowadays without the distant view, because of which the tower was built earlier. There is also a shelter and plenty of seating, someone has thought along and hung up a trash can! There is also a brick grill.

The Wartturm, also known as "Erlabrunner Wartturm," is a historic watchtower near Erlabrunn in Lower Franconia, Bavaria. This tower has a rich history and today offers both historical and tourist attractions.

History
The age of the round tower remnant between the Espenloh to the south and Eschberg to the north is dated to the 15th century in the list of protected monuments. In the last third of the 15th century, the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, Rudolf von Scherenberg, had land defenses (consisting of ramparts, ditches, and thorn hedges) and land towers built to protect against enemy invasions. The "Lion Tower," which already existed at that time, may have been incorporated into this land defense as a "watchtower."The oldest pictorial representation of the watchtower exists in a rent and interest book of the Ebrach Monastery. From 1370 onward, the monastery owned a farm belonging to the Lower Leinach knightly family of the Hotzen von Leinach (heraldic animal of a rising lion) as a fief. The watchtower was also called the "Lion Tower" until 1900. Based on this old depiction, the watchtower could be the remains of a former small castle complex.Significance
The watchtower served to observe the Zellingen-Retzbach ford and the old pilgrimage and trade route from Italy to Fulda, which ran through Leinach. From here, fire signals could be used to warn the settlements in the Leinacher Bach valley of approaching enemies, and it probably also provided visual contact with Ravensburg and Falkenburg.Source: wuerzburgwiki.de/wiki/Wartturmruine_Leinach