Bürgerturm, Freising

The Bürgerturm is a four-story watchtower in the northeast of Freising's old town. Today, the tower at Unterer Graben 25 is, along with the heavily modified Karlsturm, the last visible remnant of the city wall of the Freising city fortifications.

It was built around 1350 as part of the medieval city fortifications. The tower is first mentioned in a tax book from 1528, where it bears the name Stat durn. Since 1693 the name Burgers Turm is known.

The tower was initially built as a fortified tower open at the top. It was not until the 18th century that it received its tent roof, which still exists today. From the 16th century, the citizen's tower is proven to be inhabited. From 1693 to 1750 the tower was used as a gunpowder store. Next to it there was a detention room. After the secularization in Bavaria in 1802/03 it served as a municipal prison, later as a poorhouse.

Due to the poor condition of the tower, the town magistrate decided on August 21, 1913, that the tower could no longer be inhabited, but ruled out a sale or demolition. From 1914, the Freising Volunteer Fire Department then used the building as a hose tower. It is not known how long the volunteer fire department used the tower.

During the Third Reich, meetings of the Hitler Youth were held there. After being used by various youth groups in the years after World War II, who also renovated the tower, the Bund Naturschutz in Bayern rented the premises in 1977. After they moved out around 1990, the citizen's tower was extensively renovated between 1994 and 1996 by a citizens' initiative with donations. Since then, it has housed the Grabenmuseum. In the museum, which opened on May 22, 1996, there are changing exhibitions on topics of Freising history.