Holzturm
Holzturm rises in Mainz as a medieval Gothic tower beside the Rhine, marking a surviving section of the city’s fortifications. Its slender stone body carries square quoins, a steep hipped roof, and pointed polygonal turrets. Built in the early fifteenth century, the structure combined a watchtower with a gate-tower for Mainz’s defences. The passage beneath it now lies about three metres below street level, shaped by later embankments.
Wood once stood piled beside the Rhine, connecting this riverside landmark with its working surroundings. Over the centuries, its rooms became a gaol for Johannes Bückler, known as Schinderhannes, and his gang. World War II badly damaged the tower, and reconstruction restored it in 1961 for Mainz’s two-thousandth anniversary. Organisations and clubs use the building, while its Gothic silhouette recalls defences reaching back to Roman times.
- City
- Mainz
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Take this page with you
The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Mainz. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.