Prenzlau Town Fortifications - Stettin Gate Tower

The Stettiner Torturm, also called Blindower Tor, is one of the older gate structures of Prenzlau’s town fortifications. It was built in the thirteenth century as an originally square defence tower with battlements; the old battlements are still visible in the middle of the tower. With the introduction of firearms the tower was raised in round form in the fourteenth/fifteenth century in order to reduce the surface exposed to attack. In place of the battlements it received a projecting timber gallery (comparable with that of the Mitteltorturm), which probably burned in the great town fire of 1483. At the same time a barbican was laid out that ran from the tower northwards across two ditches to an outer gate. On the town side a crack in the masonry is visible running downwards from the battlement crown; it probably dates from the siege by the Pomeranians in 1425. The barbican was demolished in 1842 and replaced by a gate structure of pillars. The old gateway, which had been walled up in the fifteenth or sixteenth century, was reopened in 1859/60; pedestrian traffic still passes through it today. The height is about 32 m.