The 70-metre-tall Perlachturm is a

belltower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

in front of the church of St. Peter am Perlach in the central district of

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It originated as a

watchtower A watchtower or watch tower is a type of fortification used in many parts of the world. It differs from a regular tower in that its primary use is military and from a turret in that it is usually a freestanding structure. Its main purpose is to ...

in the 10th century. The existing Renaissance structure was built in the 1610s by

Elias Holl Elias Holl (28 February 1573 in Augsburg – 6 January 1646 in Augsburg) was the most important architect of late German Renaissance architecture. Life Elias Holl was born in Augsburg, Werbhausgasse 2. He was descended from a master-builder- ...

, who also designed the neighbouring

Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

Name

The exact origin of the name "Perlachturm" is unknown, with several different theories attempting to explain it. Of the three constituent parts of the name, "''Per''," "''lach''" and "''turm''," only the latter presents no controversy and means "Tower." The conventional wisdom holds that the first two parts originated from the medieval fairs involving bears on the central square. In

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...

, ''Per'' means ''bear'' and ''lach'' describes a ''show'', or ''fair''. An information plaque on the tower itself says that it came from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

"perlego" ("read through"). There are 258 steps to the observation deck.

Gallery

Image:A rathausplatz.jpg, Perlachtower with

Image:Augsburg1550.jpg, Perlach market place 1550 File:Turamichele-2007-1.jpg, Fighting

Turamichele Turamichele ("Tower-Michael") is the name of a moving mechanical figure on the Perlach Tower (''Perlachturm'') next to Perlach church in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. It shows the Archangel Michael fighting with the devil. Every year on 29 September ...

at the window of Perlachturm Plaza del Ayuntamiento, Augsburgo, Alemania, 2021-06-04, DD 29-31 HDR.jpg, Night view

External links

Pictures of the tower

AugsburgWiki (german)
Towers completed in the 17th century Watchtowers in Germany Buildings and structures in Augsburg {{Bavaria-struct-stub

Name

Gallery

See also

External links