Pulverturm

The Pulverturm stands in Jena, Thuringia, as part of the old town wall. It occupies the north-west corner where the Leutragraben and Fürstengraben cross today. Around 1300 the town’s defences formed a complete ring of ditches, walls, outer baileys, three gate towers, four corner bastions and twelve later shell towers. The tower rises about twenty metres and has four storeys plus a parapet walk. With the rebuilt fighting platform, the house built on top of the wall and the Johannistor gate, it makes the largest surviving stretch of Jena’s former defences. Entry is through a single low door set seven metres up, reached only by the restored walkway. Visitors find the tower’s single door still seventy centimetres above ground level. The nearby Johannistor once carried the Erfurt–Altenburg trade road into the medieval Johannis suburb. The house built on the wall above the foundations shows how the defences were later adapted for living space.