What to See in Barth - Top Sights and Attractions

The Dammtor was part of the medieval fortifications of the town of Barth in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and secured access to the town to the west. The present building was probably erected around 1425 and later changed several times. The five-story brick building with a pointed arched passageway is 35 meters high and has a four-meter wide passageway, which formerly had an outer and an inner gate. A town gate at this location was documented as early as 1357. In 2007, the gate was extensively renovated. The gate is the last of the original four town gates. The masonry of the city side is significantly less thick than on the fortified outer side facing away from the city. Here the masonry is over two meters thick.

The entrance to the tower (formerly accessible via the city wall, later via the attic of an attached house) is located at a height of about seven meters.

The floor of the floor above the passageway is vaulted like a barrel. In the center of the vault there is a covered transport opening to the roadway. On the floor, up to a height of about two meters, there is the masonry, which probably comes from the older predecessor building from the 14th century.

The gate was only accessible via ladders that had to be pulled up from floor to floor.

The four eave bay windows on the fourth floor level originally had two windows and were intended to be pitch noses.

In the attic area there is a colony of jackdaws, which is a protected species. The birds are housed in numbered nest boxes. The west-sloping attic truss has a tree-like design with emperor stem finials. The four bay windows in the attic are arranged diagonally.

The building is a listed building and is registered under No. 105 in the list of listed buildings of the district of North Western Pomerania.

The Fangelturm in Barth is a defense tower and Fangelturm and was part of the city's fortifications.

The brick tower that exists now was first mentioned in the 16th century as "nova turis" (new tower). It is twelve meters high, with a diameter of 7.7 meters and a wall thickness of 1.90 meters. Originally, the tower was an unroofed fortification tower crowned with battlements in the course of the city wall.

The tower was also used as a prison tower. The name Fangelturm can be interpreted linguistically as "tower of enclosure", but also as "prison tower". On the first floor there is a 5 m deep dungeon under a round floor opening. This was walled up in the 18th century and two prison cells were built in instead. In the course of the restorations in 1996 and 2007, the dungeon was made accessible again.

In the 19th century the fortified building was rebuilt. It was supplemented with the upper floor and a domed roof. In the process, it lost the battlements.

Since 1965, there has been a school observatory on the roof of the tower.