Town Fortification Nördlingen-Löpsinger Gate

The Nördlingen city wall is the only city wall in Germany that has a completely preserved, all-round accessible and covered battlement. It encloses the entire medieval old town of Nördlingen and has a length of 2.6 kilometers. The city wall includes five gates with gate towers, eleven other towers and a bastion.

Construction of the city wall began in 1327 on the orders of Louis the Bavarian. It replaced the old defensive wall, the course of which can still be seen today in the course of the old town streets Drehergasse, Bei den Kornschrannen, Vordere Gerbergasse, Herrengasse and Neubaugasse. Between 1536 and 1613, four gates and two towers were rebuilt from scratch. In addition, seven oven towers, three strong bulwarks and two bastions were built during this period. During the Thirty Years' War in 1634, the Nördlingen city fortifications withstood a siege by imperial troops in the run-up to the Battle of Nördlingen. From 1803, the people of Nördlingen began to dismantle parts of the now superfluous city wall. In 1826, King Ludwig I of Bavaria placed the wall under his protection and forbade its further demolition.

Löpsinger Tor

The Löpsinger Tor secured the important trade route to Nuremberg. It was built before 1388, but was demolished in 1592 and rebuilt in the following two years in the style of the Deininger Tor by Wolfgang Walberger. The sundial dates from 1837. The depiction of a head in the ceiling of the passage commemorates the Nördlingen legend of "So G'sell so", the setting of which is the Löpsinger Tor. Today, the City Wall Museum is housed in the 42-meter-high Löpsinger Tor.