Affentorhäuser

The Affentorhäuser stand in Frankfurt’s Sachsenhausen as two classical buildings beside the route toward the Frankfurt Main Bridge. The road passes between them, linking the pair to the former southernmost medieval city gate. A city wall enclosed Sachsenhausen around 1390, and this passage carried traffic to and from the south.

Johann Friedrich Christian Hess built the houses between 1810 and 1811, after the old gate was demolished in 1809. Customs officers and guards once worked here while Frankfurt’s fortifications controlled movement through the city. Night closures continued until 1837, but rapid expansion soon removed the gates’ civic function. Unlike Frankfurt’s other classical city gates, demolished in 1864, these buildings survived as protected monuments.

After serving as civic houses until 1995, they changed ownership before the Frankfurt Caritas Association took them in 2001. Caritas renovated the property by 2006, preserving a visible reminder of Sachsenhausen’s fortified past.