Stadtbefestigung Ahrweiler

The medieval town wall of Ahrweiler still rings the old quarter in a 1 800-metre circuit. Four stone gateways—Obertor, Adenbachtor, Niedertor and Ahrtor—pierce the curtain, and three half-round towers rise above the masonry. A network of four separate ditches once guarded the low points around the gates, each fed by the Mühlenteich, a millrace diverted from the river Ahr. The wall itself stands on slender brick arches and piers rather than a continuous foundation, making the whole structure flexible against shocks. Between the Ahrtor and Niedertor regular holes 25 by 30 centimetres, called Rüstlöcher, once carried the beams that supported a wooden fighting platform. After the Second World War the Ahrtor was rebuilt with two pedestrian passages, but elsewhere the original layout of hurdengalleries and breastworks can still be traced on the parapet. Inside the enclosure the cobbled lanes lead past the four gate towers, each with its own story. The Adenbachtor carries a Madonna in a niche, the Obertor bears three cannonballs set into the wall to mark the Burgundian siege of 1476, and the Ahrtor’s surviving basement vaults recall the bombing of January 1945. From the top of the curtain walk the vineyards of the Ahr valley stretch away, while below the dry ditches now serve as quiet gardens and allotments.