Exhibition about Speyer’s historic city walls and towers

Speyer had been surrounded by 68 gate towers once, but only a few have remained: the old city gate “Altpörtel”, the “Heidentürmchen”, the “Schmied-“, and the “Schwalbenturm”, the three city towers “Zum Drachen”, “Zur Taube”, and “Zum Bock”, as well as the “Löwen-“, and the “Bärenturm”. There are also several segments of Speyer’s fortification that have outlasted centuries, for example the wall segment at the “Eselsdamm”. Other city wall segments were renovated and integrated into housing constructions, such as realized at the formerly Matt’sche estate at the “Hirschgraben”.

The reason for the fact that there are only little remains of Speyer’s medieval city fortification gives the 1689 Palatine War of Succession, during its course Speyer’s ancient city walls and towers had been largely destroyed. Despite subsequent repopulation, several attempts to restore the fortification remains had failed.

With the help of numerous illustrations, pen drawings and pictures, the aim of the exhibition that was installed by the City Archive is to give insights into the history of Speyer’s ancient city walls and towers.  The exhibition is located on the second floor of theAltpörtel and can be visited during the usual old tower gate’s opening hours.