Torturm
Torturm rises at the southern entrance to Heidelberg Castle, where a square gateway tower secured access to the fortified complex. From the bottom of the moat, the structure reaches about forty metres and presents a heavy wooden gate with a smaller pedestrian door.
Elector Ludwig V commissioned the tower between 1531 and 1541, strengthening the outer wall from about one metre to seven metres. A vaulted room roughly ten metres high occupied the lower section, with its deepest six-metre chamber accessible only through an opening in a wooden ceiling. Three floors stood above the gateway, and the top one housed the tower warden. Sandstone once framed the elector’s coat of arms, while armoured figures dated 1534 and 1536 guarded either side.
A large iron ring still hangs beside the entrance as a door knocker. Local legend calls the mark on it the Hexenbiss, claiming a witch broke her teeth while trying to bite through the iron and win the castle.
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