Ahrtor

The Ahrtor stands as the southern gate of the former town fortifications, a stone structure forming a solid passage through the old wall. A central gate tower rises between two flanking half towers, each of them three storeys high. Looking up, you see the tower roof and the small windows that once watched the way in and out.

Inside the archway, a tuff stone relief shows the Carrying of the Cross, a work from the sixteenth century. Bombs destroyed the gate in the closing months of the Second World War. Between the end of the war and 1958, the citizens rebuilt it, restoring towers and arch to their earlier form. The gate is dedicated to Saint Barbara, the patron of the so-called Ahrhut. As part of the preserved fortification, the gate holds its place as a registered cultural monument.

The outer area with the cannon wall can be visited freely. The gate still serves as the southern entrance that residents and visitors take on their way through the old town. Up close, the masonry shows many shades of grey.