Perlahturm

According to one theory ^[1] , the origin of the name of the tower - Perlachturm - is due to festivities. The tower is adjacent to the Town Hall Square - a place for festivities with jugglers , jesters and bears on a chain. The name consists of three parts: pe, lach and turm. The third part means “tower”, the meaning of the first two is still debated. Per , in this case, is most likely a distorted form of the word Bär (“bear”). “Lach” in Old German meant “games”, “dances”. According to this theory, in a literal translation into modern German, “Perlachturm” means “Bärentanzplatz” - the square where bears dance.

The tower was built in the X century for patrol , to monitor fires or the appearance of the enemy. Initially, the tower was used to constantly monitor the surrounding area. The stones that still lie at its base date back to 1060 , but the tower itself was first mentioned even earlier, in 989 . The place where Perlachturm is located dates back to Antiquity . It was here that was once the ancient Roman amphitheater .

Subsequently, the usual residential area was located on the site of the amphitheater. The area, like the whole city at that time, was wooden and burned periodically. For the timely detection of fires, it was decided to build a sentinel tower. The tower from the time of construction was notable for its height - about 30 meters . Fires are the scourge of medieval cities, built, unlike the ancient ones, almost entirely of wood. But besides the material of buildings, destructive fires had one more reason. The townspeople very rarely allocated large sections for construction. The larger the city, the more funds were needed for defensive fortifications, because their length directly depended on the size of the city. As a result, houses were built very close to each other, so in the event of a fire, the fire was easily transferred from one house to another. The average width of the medieval street did not exceed 4-5 meters. In addition, straw and shingles , which covered the roofs, helped to spread the fire. Tiles appeared only in the XVII-XVIII centuries. Previously, it was practically not used because of the high cost, and even if there was money, it was very difficult to cover the roof with tiles: wooden structures of ceilings could not stand it. It is clear that the earlier they discovered the fire, the less were the consequences of fires, therefore, high watchtowers were a vital necessity for the Middle Ages.

Since 1182, there is a mention of a church near the tower. In churches in those days traditionally took refuge during the war. The Church of St. Peter at Perlach ( German: St. Peter am Perlach ) is still behind the tower. This is a monastery church, and uninformed visitors to the tower often mistakenly take the tower for the belfry of the monastery.

Watch bells appeared on the tower according to indirect data in 1056 , but at first there was no permanent guard. The first mention of the permanent guard service on the tower dates back to 1272 . Then it was the right and duty of the shop of wine merchants. Vintners in Western Europe belonged to representatives of the younger, poorer shops. They walked the streets of cities, offering wine on bottling, and did not enjoy special respect. The guard service apparently increased the social prestige of the wine merchants' shop in Augsburg. Somehow, they not only secured this right, but they still have. Of course, for a long time there has been no service on the tower, no shop for wine merchants, but, according to tradition, 20 citizens of the city now bear the honorary name of "servants of the tower." Seven days of the week are divided between them by special agreement, and the “ministers of the tower” are still participating in its daily life, which has now become a job of serving tourists .

The tower gradually grew and reached a height of 36 meters by 1410 . In 1527, Perlahturm was already 63 meters high, and by 1616 it had grown to 70 meters. On this, the growth of the tower stopped. In 1553, a mural appeared on it, and bells began to beat every quarter of an hour. The latest changes in the height of the tower are associated with the restructuring of the city hall in 1612-1618. In the old town hall, above, there was a belfry, for which there was no place in the new project. Then it was necessary to transfer the bells of the city council somewhere from the town hall building. City architect Elias Hall moved them to Perlahturm, and for this it was necessary to increase its height. The adviser bells joined the guard bells already on the tower. Elias Hall rebuilt the entire top of the tower in this regard. Then the beautiful completion of Perlachturm appeared in the form of a lantern. They did not begin to make any radical changes to the Romanesque -style architecture of the tower. Perlahturm retained at its core a regular octagon, and an increase in its height and an expressive architectural solution to its completion only emphasized the importance of the tower in the general urban landscape of Augsburg.

A gilded weather vane is installed on the roof of the tower. Despite the fact that Perlachturm has a Christian church, the weather vane portrays the pagan goddess of land and fertility Zisu. The goddess did not appear here by accident: since the time of the ancient Germans, she has been patronizing Augsburg. The Town Hall Square was a place of amusement in antiquity, in the barbarian, and in all Christian eras. Therefore, the reflection in the architecture of Perlachturm and different eras of the life of Augsburg is so symbolic: from paganism to Christianity.

By the 2000th anniversary of the city, the Old Augsburg Society has funded the installation of a musical device - a carillon - on Perlahturm . It was ordered in Belgium , in Mechelen , where they make bells with a “raspberry” ringing (Mechelen in French - Malin). Carillon appeared in 1984 and cost the city 1.1 million marks. Since then, 4 times a day, at 11, 12, 17 and 18 hours you can hear beautiful bell music. Mozart’s melodies from The Magic Flute and folk songs, for example, Die Gedanken sind frei (“thoughts are free”) float above the town hall square. 35 bells are capable of performing musical works no worse than the famous bell devices in Belgium. Their number is symbolic: the carillon in Augsburg became the 35th in a row in Germany. The art of playing carillon has long been one of the most honorable in the church circle and was inherited. The principle of the arrangement of bell music in Catholic churches differs from the Orthodox one: In Orthodox belfries, bells are selected so that each next one is exactly twice as much or less than the previous one. In carillons, the number of bells cannot be less than 23, and they are picked up like notes by a piano , lining up on a chromatic row in the range from two to six octaves . The bells in the carillon are fixed motionless, their tongues are connected to the keyboard using a wire transmission, like a rotating shaft in an organ. According to the principles of the game, a modern carillon can also be compared with an organ : a performer sits in a special cabin at a table with pedals and a double row of keys in the form of handles. In order for the carillon to play, you need to press the pedals and beat the fists on the handles.

Every year, September 29 , the day of St. Michael ("Michaelstag", by Catholics), in the arched windows of the tower appears the figure of Archangel Michael . With every watch strike, he hits Satan lying on the floor. According to an old legend, with every new blow of the archangel, some kind of wish must be fulfilled. Children launch balloons into the sky, sticking notes to them with their desires, and balloons fly away to travel in the vicinity of Augsburg. Michael's Day has long been turned into the main children's holiday in Augsburg: with an amusement park on the Town Hall Square and a variety of performances. The original figures of the archangel and the dragon were made in 1526 by the master Kristoff Moormann , and they, in terms of mechanics, interact with the clock mechanism. Old figures were destroyed along with most of the tower during the bombing of the city in February 1944 during World War II and were replaced by modern Kempten sculptors Karl Höfelmayr in 1949.

The first clock appeared on the tower in 1398 and was made by Nuremberg craftsmen. However, the old tower clock was not preserved in many places, because at the beginning of the 17th century a revolution took place in watchmaking: a spring drive appeared instead of a mechanical one, and, gradually, the new design replaced the original one.

Tower clocks played a special role in the life of a medieval city. For the vast majority of citizens, this was the only source of accurate time. Without them, time could be determined only approximately: early morning, late evening, midday ... Visible at a great distance, the clock on the tower in the daily life of Augsburg residents played a role, probably no less than city councilors.

Inside Perlachturm there is a spiral staircase typical of round towers - 261 steps to the bells on the observation deck. Once a year, during the feast of St. Michael, competitions are held here for a high-speed “race” to the top of the tower. Competitors start with an interval of 2 minutes. Only a very talented athlete can reach the bells in almost one minute.

Entrance to Perlahturm is open from May 1 to October 31 . You can get to the tower in warm autumn even in November. The cost of visiting is 2 euros for adults and 1 euro for students. In fine weather, 200-300 people visit the tower a day. From the site under the bells overlooks Augsburg . The city is visible almost all. The borders of the ancient center, all the watch towers and tall houses stand out especially clearly from this height. Do not just forget about the bells: when they start beating right above your head, it is best to immediately close your ears. When the Föhn blows - the southern wind from the deserts of North Africa - even the Alps can be seen from Perlachturm. Föhn drives clouds away from the mountains, revealing the mountains to the eyes of spectators tens of kilometers away. Previously, warning the inhabitants of Augsburg about the approach of Föhn , a yellow flag was hung on the tower. Then those who find it difficult to bear the wind from the desert could leave the city or somehow prepare for the pressure drop and fine dust that Fön carries with him.

• The Perlachturm article on the Augsburg wiki (in German).