Neubrandenburg City Walls

Neubrandenburg calls itself the Town of Four Gates, and with good reason. An almost complete medieval wall still rings the old town, with four brick gates whose ornate gables are among the finest examples of north German Brick Gothic. The fortifications are considered the best-preserved Brick Gothic town defences in Europe; people once called the town the "Rothenburg of the North". A walk around them costs nothing.

History

On 4 January 1248, Margrave John I of Brandenburg commissioned his knight Herbord von Raven to found the town. Palisades and earthworks came first; from about 1300 a stone wall was built, eventually 2.3 km long and up to 7.5 m high, with 57 wall houses (Wiekhäuser), two towers and, in the end, four gates. In 1631 imperial troops under Tilly stormed the town, after which the wall served only as a customs boundary and many wall houses became modest homes. Since the 1970s, 25 have been rebuilt on their original sites.

The four gates

• Friedländer Tor: north-east, early 14th century; with its outer gate and surviving forward bastion it is 88 metres long and the most complete. A café and a registry office now occupy the half-timbered houses between the gates.
• Stargarder Tor: south, main gate dated to 1311. Nine figures with terracotta heads and hands, the Adorantinnen, stretch out their arms on the town side; nobody knows their origin or meaning.
• Neues Tor: east, the youngest gate (late 15th century) and the only one without an outer gate, also with eight figures.
• Treptower Tor: west, mid-14th century, the tallest at 31.8 m. It has housed the regional museum since 1872, though that exhibition is currently closed for renovation.

Also worth seeing

The Fangelturm served as the town jail until the 19th century. The ramparts are now a green park circling the town. The Konzertkirche, the rebuilt St Mary's, has an exhibition on Brick Gothic; the town history museum in the former Franciscan friary opens Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00–17:00.

Tripto tip

Walk the ramparts clockwise from the station in the north: Friedländer Tor, Neues Tor, Stargarder Tor, Treptower Tor. Look at the town side of the Stargard and New Gates for the figures. Allow two hours.