THE JEWISH TOWER
Location: Židovska ulica 6
Architect: unknown
Time of construction: ca. 1465, 17th century (upward extension)
The Jewish Tower is located in the immediate vicinity of the former Synagogue and was a part of Maribor's Jewish quarter until the end of the 15th century. The tower, which was incorporated into the former town wall at the intersection between its eastern and southern sides, represented the beginning of the Renaissance closing wall, which expanded to the Water Tower beside the Drava River. Its Spodnja vodna vrata (the Lower Water Gate) separated the Drava suburbs from the surrounding area.
The defence tower was erected around 1465 in the place of the old guardhouse. Therefore, it was built around the time of the first large renovation of the town wall between 1460 and 1470, in which the Jews also participated. In 1465, the town judge Sebald Mitterhueber confirmed that they donated 40 pounds, which were used for wood, the transfer of wood and for paying the masons. It is possible that the tower housed a Jewish school, mentioned in sources in 1477. That year Emperor Frederick III ordered the Jewish Master Musch from Bad Radkersburg to erase the fine of 12 florins that Jew David was supposed to pay for the construction of the Talmud school in Maribor. When the Water Tower was built beside the Drava River in 1555, they used the town wall to connect the tower and the Spodnja vodna vrata with the Jewish Tower. The construction of the bastion on the Drava River began in 1554, and in 1555, the bastion's cornice was finished. Masters Rupert Scheunperger and Jakob Lušnik constructed the tower and the town wall between the Water and Jewish Towers in 1555. In 1646, the town officer Krištof (Christopher) Schäferl used the tower as an apartment, later it was the apartment of Sturz, while from 1882, the merchants Altmann used it to store fruit. In 1967, the connecting town wall was demolished. The tower was restored in 1975, while the façades were renovated in 1976.
The tower was designed as a typical medieval fortress with a rectangular ground plan and a steep hipped roof. In the last quarter of the 17th century, it was extended upwards and covered with a half-hipped roof. The three-storey tower with walls 1,5 m thick is mostly built of stone in the lower part, the upper part is made of brick, while the corners are made of carved quoins. Its exterior is divided by windows and slits. The northern wall is mostly made of brick and has a rectangular window, a rectangular door and a vaulted brick arch, which connected the tower with its younger extension. On the southern side, there are three windows and a rectangular brick door, which once led to the passageway towards the Water Tower. In the eastern wall, there are two stone and two brick slits, while the western side of the tower is divided by three rectangular windows and one rectangular portal.
Mija Oter Gorenčič
(25 September 2014)
