The 70-metre-tall Perlachturm is a
belltower in front of the church of
St. Peter am Perlach in the central district of
Augsburg
Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. It originated as a
watchtower in the 10th century. The existing Renaissance structure was built in the 1610s by
Elias Holl, who also designed the neighbouring
Town Hall.
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; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...
, ''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 languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
"perlego" ("read through"). There are 258 steps to the observation deck.
Gallery
Image:A rathausplatz.jpg, Perlachtower with Town Hall
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 Michael (archangel), Archangel Michael fighting with the devil. Acc ...
at the window of Perlachturm
Plaza del Ayuntamiento, Augsburgo, Alemania, 2021-06-04, DD 29-31 HDR.jpg, Night view
See also
*
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 Michael (archangel), Archangel Michael fighting with the devil. Acc ...
(fighting
Archangel Michael at Perlachturm)
*
Mary Untier of Knots in
St. Peter am Perlach
External links
Pictures of the towerAugsburgWiki (german)
Towers completed in the 17th century
Watchtowers in Germany
Buildings and structures in Augsburg
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