Storchenturm, Gernsbach

The Stork Tower is a medieval fortified tower and a landmark of the town of Gernsbach in Baden-Württemberg. It is the only one of the formerly four larger towers that served to protect the Gernsbach city gates to have survived. It is located at the strategically important northwest corner of the city wall, 40 meters west of the now defunct Upper Gate, one of Gernsbach's two main gates. Together with the bell tower of the neighboring Liebfrauenkirche, the Stork Tower secured the western, uphill flank of the Gernsbach city wall, which was not protected by natural obstacles.

The 26-meter-high tower has a pointed arched gate at the level of the former battlements on the formerly 10-meter-high city wall as an entrance on the south and east side. According to the inscription, the ground-level entrance from the main street that exists today was created in 1891. The wall thickness on the first floor is 1.45 m. In the western wall of the tower there is a slotted hole about 1.90 m high for archers.

The exact age of the tower shaft is not known. The Upper Gate has been documented since 1441, the origin of the Gernsbach town fortifications is assumed to be in the 13th century. According to a dendrochronological examination, the half-timbered top of the Storchenturm dates back to 1471/1472. 82 steps lead to the tower room, which today houses an exhibition on the history of the Gernsbach town fortifications and the Storchenturm.