Stadttor

The Spitaltor stands at the northern edge of Coburg’s old town, one of three surviving medieval gate towers that once formed part of the inner ring of town walls. It marks the point where the medieval trade route from Nuremberg to Erfurt entered the city through the northern defences. The surrounding Spitalgasse links the market square with the Steinweg, keeping the same alignment used by merchants centuries ago. The gate first appears in the city records of 1393, but archaeologists believe the stone tower was built in the 13th or 14th century. A fire in 1685 destroyed the old timber-framed upper storey and killed five members of the watchman’s family. Within months a new stone octagonal crown was added, topped with a slate-covered ‘welsche’ dome and lantern. In 1937 two extra carriageways were cut beside the original arch to ease traffic, and by 1982 the tower had become part of the pedestrianised heart of the city. Visitors enter through the second floor of the neighbouring house at Kleine Mauer 1, the former watchman’s dwelling. Inside the six-storey tower the narrow spiral stair leads past small rectangular windows on the south side and a blocked lower window on the north. The octagonal upper section carries clocks on north and south faces and holds two bells cast in 1708 and 1756 by local founders Magnus Schenk and Johann Andreas Mayer. Above the bells the slate roof rises to a small lantern, giving the gate its distinctive skyline above the cobbled streets below.