The Eschenheim Tower was a city gate in the late medieval city fortifications of Frankfurt am Main and a landmark of the city. It was built with the founding of Frankfurt's New Town and the construction of the new city wall starting in 1333. A replacement for the first gate tower, completed in 1346, was built starting in 1400.
When the city wall was demolished between 1806 and 1812 and replaced by the ramparts, the tower, like the other gate structures, was to be demolished. However, following objections from the French occupiers at the time, it remained as a monument, the most famous of around 60 towers of the city fortifications.
The Eschenheim Tower is 47m high and has eight full floors and two attics. The spire is flanked by many small, but equally proportioned side turrets; a projecting battlement runs around them. At the top of the tower is the iron weather vane, into which, according to legend, the poacher Hans Winkelsee, who was sentenced to death and imprisoned in the tower, shot a perfect 9 with nine shots. This trick shot is said to have so impressed the city council that the poacher was pardoned. The holes in the weather vane are still clearly visible today.
Since 1992, the Eschenheimer Tower, which for decades stood on an inaccessible traffic island, has once again been accessible from the Schillerstraße pedestrian zone. A bar and restaurant have been located on the ground floor; the tower guards' fireplace room is also open during the winter months. 🚴♂️
The Eschenheim Tower is 47 m high and has eight full floors and two attic floors. A round tower rises above a square base building, the actual gate. The steep spire is accompanied by four small, equally proportioned spier watchtowers, around which a cantilevered battlement runs.
The Adolfsturm, built in 1347 in the neighboring imperial city of Friedberg, could have served as a stylistic model for the builders, which has a similar outline. Originally under a Gothic arch through it, now around it runs the Große Eschenheimer Straße, which continues outside the former fortifications in the Eschersheimer Landstraße. The passage could be closed with a drop gate. Earth and stones were stored on the first floor to additionally block the passage in the event of an attack. On the second floor, behind 2.50 m thick walls, is the living room of the tower guard, which was inhabited until 1956. Both sides of the tower bear reliefs of coats of arms at the level of the second floor: on the city side the silver eagle on a red background, the coat of arms of the Free Imperial City and on the land side the black double-headed eagle on a gold background, the coat of arms of the Empire.
On the city side there is a covered balcony above the passage, on the land side there are two small flanking towers. A portrait relief above the entrance to the restaurant on the city side presumably depicts master builder Gerthener himself.
On the top of the tower there is an iron weather vane, into which, according to the legend "The Nine in the Weather Vane", the poacher Hans Winkelsee, who was sentenced to death and held prisoner in the tower, shot a perfect 9 with nine shots. The art shot is said to have impressed the city council so much that it pardoned Winkelsee. The holes in the weathervane are clearly visible, but today it is no longer the same weathervane.
Large parts of the original staircase and the intermediate floors from the period 1426 to 1428 have been preserved in the tower.