City walls and land defense of Anklam

The 15th-century city wall of Anklam stands in the small Hanseatic town in north-eastern Germany. It replaced an 12th-century wooden palisade that once encircled the old town. The surviving stone wall, up to eight metres high, stretches for 2.5 kilometres and is protected as a monument. The wall was raised in stages: first to five metres around 1400, then to eight metres in 1517. Seven gates once pierced the wall, though only the 13th-century Steintor remains. The six-storey Steintor, with its stepped gable, is a landmark and now houses the regional history museum. A round powder tower in the south, built between 1618 and 1639, is the only surviving tower. Visitors walk the Mauerstraße where the wall once stood, and see preserved stretches along the harbour and the street Großer Wall. The outline of the demolished Stolperthor is marked in the pavement. Nearby, the Wartturm Hoher Stein recalls the outer defences that once stretched across 24 square kilometres.