Eschenheimer Turm

Eschenheimer Turm (Eschenheim Tower) was a city gate, part of the late-medieval fortifications of Frankfurt am Main, and is a landmark of the city. The tower, which was erected at the beginning of the fifteenth century, is at once the oldest and most unaltered building in the largely reconstructed Frankfurter Neustadt (new town), now better known as the Frankfurt-Innenstadt (city center).

In the early 14th century the Frankfurter Altstadt (old town) gradually began to expand beyond its borders; documentation from the 1320s of buildings erected outside of the city wall testifies to the growing need for expansion. With the permission of Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV, the free imperial city began its so-called "second city expansion," increasing the surface area of the city threefold.

In 1343, only ten years after the establishment of the Neustadt, the construction of the city wall began, also approved by the emperor, in order to protect the Neustadt from the diverse dangers that threatened the city at that time. Apart from a central boulevard (die Zeil), the site of the cattle market and the Roßmarkt, the new town was primarily devoted to gardens and agriculture, rather than residential or commercial buildings.

Although the new fortifications took over 100 years to build, on 11 October 1349, merely three years after the beginning of construction, the cornerstone was laid for a gate tower at the site of the later Eschenheimer Turm, which at the time was simply described as "round." Located at the end of Große Eschenheimer Straße (an extension of the Kornmarkt, the city's second most important north-south axis), the fortification was of great strategic importance.

In 1400 the carpenter Klaus Mengoz began construction of a replacement for the first gate tower. The architect of the Frankfurt Cathedral, Madern Gerthener, completed the new Eschenheimer Turm in 1426–1428. In 1806–1812 the old city walls were replaced with new fortifications at the command of the Prussian government, and Eschenheimer Turm, along with all the other historic gates and towers, was slated for demolition. At the objection of the ambassador of the French occupying forces, Count d'Hédouville, Eschenheimer Turm was allowed to remain as a monument. Besides Eschenheimer Turm (the most famous of the ca. 60 towers that comprised the city's fortifications), only two other towers—the Rententurm on the Römerberg (Frankfurt's main city square) and Kuhhirtenturm in Alt-Sachsenhausen—were spared demolition.

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