Museum im Hexenturm

About the museum

The Hexenturm (Witch Tower) was built around 1250, in the Hohenstaufen era, as part of Markdorf's town fortifications. Its original entrance was on the north side, on what is today the fourth floor, and could be reached by a narrow footbridge from the town wall. Scaffolding holes from the construction period can still be seen on the west side.

The name is misleading: there is no written evidence that the tower was used as a prison for women accused of witchcraft, although several women were accused of witchcraft and executed in Markdorf in 1616. Around 1800, an entrance was broken through the roughly one-meter-thick wall at ground level. Afterward, two floors served as so-called Bürgerstüble, where people who had broken the curfew, as well as vagrants and beggars, were held overnight.

Today the tower is an object museum. Besides the surviving detention cells, it displays tools of the rope maker and the saddler. A documentation room holds files on beggars, as well as books and a film about dying crafts. The roof and façade were restored in 2024 with support from the German Foundation for Monument Protection (Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz).

Highlights

• Preserved Bürgerstüble (lock-up cells) from the 19th century
• Craft tools of the rope maker and the saddler
• Medieval town tower from around 1250
• Documentation room on dying crafts

Permanent exhibition

• Objektmuseum Hexenturm – 19th-century lock-up cells, tools of the rope maker and the saddler, and a documentation room on beggars and dying crafts.

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Amenities & dining

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Events & venue rental

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