The round casing
Stone added by Georg Unger against cannon fire.
André Karwath aka Aka — CC BY-SA 2.5 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Tilman2007 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Tilman2007 — CC BY-SA 4.0
One of the four great round towers of Nuremberg's last city wall, standing at the south-west corner where you enter the old town coming from Plaerrer. It was first mentioned in thirteen seventy-seven and finished in thirteen eighty-five, replacing the gate tower of the previous wall known as the White Tower. In its first form it was rectangular, not round. The decisive change came between fifteen fifty-six and fifteen sixty-four, when the city architect Georg Unger encased all four gate towers in a circular stone shell up to seventeen metres across, taking his model from the round towers of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. The reasoning was purely ballistic: a curved surface gives a cannonball a worse angle than a corner does. The rebuilt tower has eight storeys and a gun platform under the roof with room for sixteen cannon covering the open country beyond. In the Second World War the tower was converted into an above-ground bunker, and since July two thousand and six it has held the library and archive of the Nuremberg garrison museum, so there is no general access inside. What you do here is walk past it, or stand under it to gauge the sheer thickness of the defences, and then follow the wall and the dry moat that ring the old town — one of the best walks in Nuremberg, and free from end to end.
Stone added by Georg Unger against cannon fire.
The start of a free walk round the old town.
Spittlertorgraben, 90429 Nuremberg
Nicolaus Copernicus PlanetariumA municipal planetarium standing at Plaerrer beside the city energy company's to4 minutes walk4.4
The Minnesinger FountainA stone fountain with a hexagonal basin in the Kleinweidenmühle district of Nure4 minutes walk4.5
Weisser TurmThe Weisser Turm is an old gate from Nuremberg's inner wall, built in the thirte5 minutes walk4.7
Rosenau ParkA park of about three hectares west of the old town beyond the Fuerther Tor, in 5 minutes walk4.4
Ehekarussell FountainThe Ehekarussell is a strange modern fountain on Ludwigsplatz, near the Frauento5 minutes walk4.5Because they were re-cased in the sixteenth century, after artillery changed the rules of siege warfare. A square tower breaks at its corners under bombardment, whereas a cylinder deflects the shot. Georg Unger encased the four main gate towers between fifteen fifty-six and fifteen sixty-four and left the smaller wall towers as they were, since they mattered less to the defence.