The Drosendorf town fortification is the preserved town wall in the town of Drosendorf-Zissersdorf in the northern Waldviertel in Lower Austria.

The 1.7 km long town wall encompasses the entire old town of Drosendorf, which is located on a mountain range in a loop of the Thaya. There were two town gates in the wall, the Horner Gate and the Raabser Gate, of which the Raabser Gate is still preserved. The wall also includes the former castle, Drosendorf Castle. A themed hiking trail now leads around the town on the terrace of the walls.

The first town wall was built in the middle of the 13th century. With a wall thickness of 1.5 meters, it was about 8 meters high at the two gates. Between 1260 and 1300, two towers were built at the Horner Gate, which were also habitable. A tower was also built soon afterwards to the west of the Raabser Gate, but it no longer exists today because it was demolished in the 19th century. Only then was the wall reinforced and given the form it still has today. The wall was about 10 meters high and 1.9 meters thick. Construction work lasted until the first decades of the 15th century. The reasons for the reinforcements were, for example, the battles for the city that took place in 1405, but also the subsequent Hussite Wars. The round tower was given 3 meter thick walls so that it could also fend off cannons. A late Gothic moat fortification was built in front of the city wall almost around the entire city, which has numerous loopholes.

As the cannons also became more powerful in the 16th and 17th centuries, the moats had to be further reinforced. However, these outworks built at the southeast corner of the city wall are largely no longer there today. A shooting range was set up to the west of the castle in 1667.

The terraces with the moats were converted into gardens over time.

With this listed wall (list entry), Drosendorf is one of the nine towns in Lower Austria where large parts have also been preserved: Eggenburg, Hainburg an der Donau, Horn, Laa an der Thaya, Retz, Waidhofen an der Thaya, Weitra and Zwettl.

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadtbefestigung_Drosendorf

Translated by Google •

Denis

July 29, 2024

This old city gate is a beautiful sight, especially for the bikers that had to get there from the Thaya bridge. It's a rather steep way up. 😅

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Location: Drosendorf-Zissersdorf, Bezirk Horn, Waldviertel, Lower Austria, Austria

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