Wohnturm Benneckenbeck

Wohnturm Benneckenbeck stands in the garden of Köhneschen Hof, within Magdeburg’s Ottersleben district, as a historic architectural landmark. Its exact construction date remains uncertain, despite the 1594 inscription beside its entrance.

Historians place its origins between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, while other suggestions point to around 1500 or 1520. The tower is the oldest building in Benneckenbeck. During attacks and sieges, residents used the structure as refuge, reaching the upper floors through an external ladder that could be withdrawn. The Ottersleben area once had several such towers. This survivor served as a dovecote until the Second World War, then suffered a lightning strike in 1945 and fell into disrepair. Stabilisation work later secured the tower and renewed its roof.

Rubble stone forms the square structure, while light ashlar marks its corners and a brick column rises at the centre. Its ground floor contains a ribbed vault and walls 1.3 metres thick. The upper floors show round-arched openings, twin windows with profiled frames, round-arched windows, and flat ceilings. The listed cultural monument reaches nearly 18 metres above its square base.