Schellenturm

Schellenturm stands at the southern edge of Stuttgart’s Bohnenviertel, within the central district of Stuttgart-Mitte. The tower is one of the few surviving pieces of the city’s former fortifications. Built in 1564, it rises from a district shaped by medieval expansion beyond the thirteenth-century wall. Königstraße and Eberhardstraße still trace parts of that older boundary.

The tower first served as a storage facility before gaining a two-storey extension in the nineteenth century. Residential use followed, while neglect left the building underused for long periods. Prisoners known as Schellenwerker wore bells on their clothing during compulsory public labour. Their bells gave the tower its later name, replacing Kastkellereiturm in 1811 after another Schellenturm was demolished. Friedrich Westmeyer later used the building to draw attention to poor housing conditions in Stuttgart.

Bombing in 1944 destroyed the tower except for its massive stump. Reconstruction restored its appearance to the form it had after the 1906 renovation. Plans for demolition in the 1950s failed, and local business owners funded restoration in 1978 and 1979. Since its handover to Stuttgart’s citizens in 1980, the historic structure has housed the Weinstube Schellenturm.