Town Fortification Überlingen-Franziskaner Gate

Überlingen acquired city rights in 1180. Around 1250, moats and ramparts were replaced by walls. The wall was defended in sections by the various guilds. Around 1300, an inner ring wall enclosed the present old town center along the line Franziskanertor – Rosenobel – St. Johann. An outer ring wall was started in 1450 and completed in 1630. It also protected the fishermen's houses as well as the suburb and the "village" and ran along the line Badturm – Aufkircher Tor – Wagsauterturm – Wiestor.

Today, of the originally 15 defensive towers, the Gallerturm (built around 1500), the Wagsauterturm (rebuilt in 1958), the Rosenobel (built as a rondel in 1657, previously the Roßnauerturm here) and the St. Johann Turm, also built as a rondel around 1520 and later extended, still exist. The Galler- and St. Johann Turm are now used as clubhouses.

Due to high maintenance costs and increasing carriage traffic, six of the seven city gates of the outer ring had to be removed in the 19th century (listed by their demolition year): Scheerentor (at the eastern entrance of Friedhofstraße in the village, already demolished in the 18th century), Hell- or Hölltor (at the eastern entrance of Münsterstraße, outer demolished 1823, inner 1837), Wiestor (outer 1828, inner 1843), Grundtor (in the Fischerhäuservorstadt, 1838), Fahrtor (near the hospital buildings, today Landungsplatz, 1858), the Obertor collapsed in 1880. The only remaining city gate of the outer ring today is the Aufkircher Tor. Of the three gates of the inner ring (Fiedlistor, Christophstor, Barfüßertor), the Franziskanertor (formerly called Barfüßertor), completed in 1494, still exists today.