Towers

From whichever direction you approach Mühlhausen you see towers and chimneys rising above the red-tiled roofs. The chimneys belong to factories (mostly now defunct) or bakeries. There are eleven church towers within or just outside the city walls, and the walls themselves have fourteen still in existence. Towers were built in a great variety of styles for a many different purposes. The towers along the walls were mostly for guarding the city in the Middle Ages, while the church towers range in architectural style from Romanesque, Early and Late Gothic to Baroque. If you walk past them too quickly you miss a lot of the fine tracery and ingenious, sometimes humorous, carvings left by mediaeval stonemasons. The spire of the Marienkirche (Church of St. Mary) is late Neo-Gothic and only just over a century old.

Flanking the main spire of the Marienkirche on its north side is the oldest tower of all, Romanesque, and matched by an early Gothic tower on the south side. The Divi Blasii-Kirche (Church of St. Blaise) has a Romanesque west end to which Gothic spires were added. Then there are the smaller Gothic towers of the various parish churches, each one different. The variety of stonemasonry in Mühlhausen's churches is absolutely fascinating and liable to give one a stiff neck from sheer admiration.

The Jakobikirche (Church of St. James) has perhaps the most graceful spires. I can see it across the rooftops from my top window and you get a splendid view of it from the ramparts. Looking the other way, i.e. northwards along the ramparts one sees a string of towers in the curve of the city walls.

Looking due west straight up the street leading out through the main gate, the Frauentor or Lady Gate, you face the outer Lady Gate, the Äußeres Frauentor, the last remaining piece of the outer walls.