Swister Tower

It is the landmark of Weilerswist and adorns the coat of arms of the community in the north of the Euskirchen district. That is not by accident. Because the "Swister Tower" is a spiritual place where the spiritual currents of European history are concentrated like in a magnifying glass. The small, rather unspectacular building is considered by connoisseurs of regional history to be an outstanding testimony to popular piety - from antiquity to the present day. (...) On their 2,500-kilometer hike from Cologne to Santiago de Compostela, the pilgrims encounter numerous religious sites. One of them is the Swister Tower. Its location, the Swister Berg, has been a spiritual place since Roman antiquity. This is not surprising, because the location of the tower is spectacular in the truest sense of the word. It is therefore worthwhile ... to linger and take in the special atmosphere of the place.
(Source: "To the tower between heaven and earth. Hiking on the EifelSpur" Between Ville and Eifel "by Michael Maiworm, in" Die Eifel ", magazine of the Eifelverein, issue 2/2021)

The Swister Tower, built between 1100 and 1125, is the remnant of the old parish and pilgrimage church of the former village of Swist on the Swisterberg in Weilerswist. Remains of the foundations of the nave are attributed to the 9th century. Archaeological finds from Roman times point to the establishment of the first Christian church over a Roman sanctuary.

The Swister Tower represents the remains of the old parish and pilgrimage church on the Swisterberg. The former parish church was built between 1100 and 1125. After the collapse and demolition of the nave in 1828, the tower was repeatedly renovated until the end in 2006 and blessed as a place of pilgrimage by the Archbishop of Cologne