Jungfernturm, " the Maid(en)'s tower" are the remains of a part of the medieval fortifications. Legends of cruel executions stick to this gloomy place. Locals do not much like to pass it.
In its time, it had been a very massive, brick-built tower, extruding from the city wall out over the ditch. On the city side it was rectangular, on the out of city side, it was round. unlike most other city towers, square the older and circular the newer ones, Jungfernturm's oblong plot held the spacious vaults still to be seen. There were more vaults besides. The Jungfernturm became famous, long after its defensive importance, when München's fortifications became useless. Rumor has it, that the prince-elector Karl-Theodor (18th century, just before the french revolution), little loved by his munich subjects, had the vaults you see turned into a place of secret executions. The condemned, says the story, died there in the arms of an iron maiden. The descriptions of this iron maiden differ. Some say, it was a statue, whose iron arms enbraced and squeezed its victim to death. Others describe sharp pointed iron spikes. Some an even more elaborate mechanism involving the statue of a madonna. The multi-storey car park nearby was clad in redbrick to come up to this medieval built structure. Contact me, if you want to hear the full story, or more stories from medieval München. read more