In the Middle Ages, Martinstor (Martin’s Gate) stood about 20 metres tall. Today it measures over 60. In the 1800s, Freiburg debated tearing the tower down, then chose to build it higher instead and tripled its height.

The timber in the lower part dates to the year 1200, which makes this the older of the two city gates still standing. Travellers once passed through it to enter or leave Freiburg, and later it served as a prison. A plaque on the tower remembers the women burnt as witches in the city in the 1500s.

VoiceMap’s Old Town Freiburg tour stops here to follow the gate’s long climb from city entrance to the prison to the 60-metre landmark, and to explain what the plaque remembers.