Town Fortification Prenzlau - Mitteltorturm

Prenzlau’s town fortifications were begun in 1287 under margravial licence as a stone circuit originally about 2.6 km long and up to 9 m high. They comprised four town gates, defence towers and roughly 66 wiekhouses open towards the town. Of the wall of fieldstone and brick, heavily damaged in the Second World War, stretches, remains of wiekhouses and three gates survive. The Mitteltorturm is the youngest and most ornate gate tower of the circuit. It was built in the third quarter of the fifteenth century, probably on the site of an older structure near the Holy Spirit Hospital. The lower part is of fieldstone and square in plan with chamfered corners; above it rises a round brick upper storey. An octagonal gallery carried on granite corbels and roofed over links the parts and serves as a parapet walk; the top is finished with a battlemented crown and a conical roof. On the apex sits a wrought-iron eagle with a golden ring in its beak, popularly known as the “raven of the Mitteltorturm”. The tower served as the model for the towers of Berlin’s Oberbaumbrücke (1894–1896). The original side passage has not survived; the northern annex with the gateway dates from 1928. Height about 30 m.

The tower forms a townscape-defining ensemble with St Mary’s church and the ruined chapel of the Holy Spirit Hospital. It is a listed monument. The German Foundation for Monument Protection supported repairs to the side building and to the roof and façade of the tower in 1999–2001.