Rothensee Tower

The Turmhaus Rothensee is a residential building that developed around a residential tower in the Rothensee district of Magdeburg.

The three-story tower, built from quartzite rubble stone, likely dates back to the 13th century, possibly even around 1200. A round-arched door on the northern side of the middle floor and a, albeit bricked-up, round-arched window also point to the Romanesque period. The tower has an approximately square footprint of 5.60 m x 5.80 m. At the base, the wall thickness, which tapers upwards, is 1.30 m, and at the top end, it is still 0.80 m. The old window openings of the tower are mere slits.

The current cellar has a barrel vault. It is assumed that the cellar floor, which formerly served as a storage room, was originally at ground level and only became a cellar over the centuries due to the rising ground level of the surroundings. The middle floor features a pointed-arched groin vault and a fireplace located in the southeastern corner. Presumably in the 17th century, a flat-roofed floor was added. The individual floors have no connection to each other and were only accessible from the outside. A two-story half-timbered house, built around 1650, adjoins the north side of the tower.

The tower was probably built by the Knights of Rothensee, who can be traced between 1225 and 1313. In addition to serving as a symbol of power, the tower primarily served to protect the inhabitants from attacks. Rothensee was located in the border area to the settlement area of the Slavs. In this context, conflicts frequently occurred. However, the tower experienced frequent changes of ownership. During the Thirty Years' War, it belonged to a Hieronymus von Wüstenhoff, later to a bourgeois family, then to the von Platen family. Since 1739, the tower has been owned by the farming family Gerloff. In the 17th or 18th century, the tower was rebuilt to improve its habitability. In the 18th century, the northern half-timbered house caught fire.

The tower is currently still used privately as a residential building.