Town Fortification Bonn-Sterntor

Medieval City Wall

The Sterntor, rebuilt in 1900 two years after the demolition of the original gate castle at Bottlerplatz, also contains parts of the city wall and a half-tower. Since 1987/88, a part of the counter-wall to the medieval fortification (Contrescarpe) on Friedensplatz has served as a low wall in the pedestrian zone.

Since 2006, there has been a bronze plaque and markings in the pavement on Gangolfstraße. An idea of the shape of the half-tower is conveyed by the architectural hint in the shop window of house no. 11, continuing the ground marking. Not directly visible, but to be guessed, is the course of the city wall in the cityscape along Theaterstraße in the area of the Beethovenhalle towards the Rhine bank. The Beethovenhalle, as one of the subsequent superstructures, marks the northern bastion of the city wall.

Baroque City Fortification

The Alter Zoll is a former bastion of the complex on the Rhine bank and is today a popular excursion destination in the city center. Other smaller remains are, in order of rediscovery or installation:

• In 1972, during construction work, the Maximilian Bastion, also called Botterweck and built in 1642–48, became recognizable. Its southeast corner (curtain angle) was later left visible in a gallery shop in the Cassiusbastei (Maximilianstraße).
• 1989: Bastion fountain with a bronze floor plan near the curtain of the Maximilian and Heinrich bastions in Windeckstraße.
• In the course of Bonn's defortification, the Sterntorbrücke, now a protected monument, 35 meters long, also disappeared from the cityscape. Its seven barrel vaults, rhythmically structured towards the center and built of bricks, span the partly filled fortress moat and connected the newer Outer Sterntor from 1662, demolished in 1858, with the bank of the western fortress foreland. In the pedestrian zone Sterntorbrücke, since 1993, paved areas refer to the original bridge, which was widened to over 10 meters in the mid-19th century in a southerly direction and decorated with circular ornaments as architectural embellishment.
• Since 1996, the northern and southern faces of the Sterntor / St. Maria Bastion, built 1658–64, have been located at Annagraben near the new courthouse buildings. Another part of the wall was visibly incorporated into the Oxfordstraße / Wilhelmstraße underground car park.
• In 1999, a part of the curtain between the Heinrich and Sterntor / St. Maria bastions, built 1658–64, was uncovered in the new "Mälzerei" in the basement of a brewery restaurant (Sterntorbrücke).
• The curtain between the Ferdinand and Cassius bastions from 1642 has been in the Kaiserpassage since 2000.
• A bronze plate and ground stone markings have commemorated the course of the southwestern face of the Cassius Bastion from 1642 in Gangolfstraße since 2006.
• Well-preserved wall remains in the line of the northern flank of the Heinrich Bastion were uncovered in 2011 at the construction site at Friedensplatz 1 and documented using 3D methods. This 3D computer reconstruction was also shown in the special exhibition of the StadtMuseum. At two places in the new underground car park of Sparkasse KölnBonn, wall sections have been left visible. Thus, near the entrance to the underground car park, as the only known find site, the internal structure of the fortress wall can be observed in a cross-section framed with a concrete frame on the wall (fired bricks and interlayers with horizontal basalt columns). The other, concrete-walled, free-standing piece of the bastion wall in the parking area with a recognizable small room still puzzles experts.

Not directly visible, but to be guessed as a topographical trace, is the course of the bastion system in the cityscape from Wilhelmstraße to Wachsbleiche in the area of the Beethovenhalle. The hall itself stands as one of the subsequent buildings on the remains of the bastion that protected Bonn on the Rhine bank to the north.

Further fortifications in the Bonn city area are the Beueler Schanze, which existed from 1583 to 1713, and the Schänzchen, located in the immediate vicinity of the former ancient Roman camp Castra Bonnensia. Other structures in the Bonn city area not related to the medieval or baroque fortifications were or are various castles and knight's seats in the later incorporated villages of the surroundings, such as Burg Endenich and Dransdorfer Burg, with concrete plans to structurally integrate the Godesburg into the overall baroque concept.

The original Sterntor in Bonn was built around 1244 at the end of Sternstraße and was part of the medieval city fortifications. It is a protected architectural monument, and the 17th-century barrel vault is designated as an archaeological monument.

In 1898, the gate, which remained as the last gate castle of the former city fortifications, was demolished despite intervention by Emperor Wilhelm II to better manage traffic flow. Only two years later – in 1900 – a replacement structure under the same name was created a few meters away on the north side of Bottlerplatz. It consists only partially of remnants of the former Sterntor, otherwise of remnants of the city wall and an old half-tower. The corner turret and the surrounding battlement crown classify it as historicist.

Two effigies are inserted into the outer archway: the Crucified with Mary and John, and the "Mother of God with Seven Sorrows" from 1650.

In 2002, the "Lichtblicke" (Glimpses of Light) installation by light artists Regine Vogel/Johannes Dinnebier from the Center for International Light Art took place at the Sterntor.