Town Fortification Rüthen-Hexenturm

The Rüthen town fortifications were a medieval defensive system to protect against attackers. Rüthen is located in the Soest district in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The 14th-century fortification connected four town gates and eleven towers via a town wall. The entire town wall was approximately 3000 meters long. The system was for the protection of the inhabitants, for example, during the Soest Feud, the Thirty Years' War, or in battles waged by the territorial lords against each other, and to ward off robber knights. The walls were between 1.20 meters and 1.80 meters wide and about 3.00 meters to 3.50 meters high. The thickness of the wall tapered upwards, where the battlement was protected by a wall crown, interrupted by observation and firing slits. In places where the town, with its location on a mountain spur, was not protected by steep drops but transitioned into open land, additional double ditch sections were laid out.

Of the town fortifications, the Hachtor and the semi-circular Hexenturm (Witches' Tower), as well as extensive remains of the town wall, have been preserved. Today, the former town wall is a circular path around the historic town center. A bronze relief depicting the eighth Beatitude of the Persecuted and Slandered was installed in 1991 and commemorates the times of witch burning. It shows the portraits of the Jesuit priest Friedrich Spee and the pastor Michael Stappert Michael Stapirius against the backdrop of a witch burning.