City walls of Friedberg (Bavaria)

Friedberg’s medieval town wall stands on the Lechleite ridge, fifty to sixty metres above the river valley. The ridge gave natural protection, and the dukes of Bavaria-Ingolstadt built strong defences from 1409 onward. Fourteen stout towers once guarded the circuit, though only their stumps remain today. The gates were removed in the 19th century, but the layout still shows the planned square town of 1264. The town was founded by Duke Ludwig II in 1264 on a chessboard plan. Earlier attacks by Augsburg in 1296, 1372 and 1388 forced repeated strengthening of the walls. During the Thirty Years War the fortifications suffered heavy damage, yet rebuilding kept the original ground plan. In 1703 imperial troops dismantled parts of the wall during the War of Spanish Succession, and later building work absorbed long stretches into houses. On the western side the wall rises sheer above the steep slope, partly standing to its original height of about five metres. Here the curtain shows the base of the former wall-walk and several keyhole-shaped gun loops. Short sections of the walkway have been rebuilt, and the half-round shell towers project from the face. The round corner towers still stand, while the southwest water tower carries a 17th-century superstructure. A single gap marks where the Augsburger Tor once stood, recalled by a plaque beside the breach.