Rotes Tor

The Rote Tor stands in the southern part of Augsburg’s old town centre, a red-brick gatehouse left over from the city’s medieval defences. Once called the Spitaltor or Haunstetter Tor, it was spared demolition when the 19th-century wall came down. The tower’s red colour, restored in the 20th century, recalls its medieval appearance. The gate was first recorded in 1223, though a wooden passage may have existed as early as 1187. It marked the southern exit of the Via Claudia, the Roman road to the Alps and Italy. After a fire in 1371 the town rebuilt it, and by 1388 a moat and bridge were added. Elias Holl, the city architect, reshaped the gate in 1604 and a stone bridge with an aqueduct replaced the old wooden one in 1777. The adjoining bastion, built in 1545, still rises beside the gate. Today the Rote Tor sits behind the Augsburger Freilichtbühne, a summer open-air theatre. A sundial on the tower’s south face can be read only from the stage or the nearby wall walks. Below the gate the old moat has become a green park, and the Kräutergarten, a herb garden, lies just uphill near the Heilig-Geist-Spital. The gate’s surviving twin, the Gögginger Tor, was torn down in 1862, leaving the Rote Tor as Augsburg’s last complete medieval gateway.