The Loewenschede Tower
I was probably the first rampart, four storey tower in the lower town. I received my name after the alderman Winant Louenschede, who directed the construction of the defensive structures in this section of the wall.
In 1373, upon my completion, I measured from the base, 15.5 metres tall. The tower was accessed from the defensive walkway of the city wall, which has been preserved even now, as a niche, on the second floor. I grew by one floor by the middle of the 15th century, and it was still so that I was the tallest and stoutest tower of the city. I was already called a Great Tower! The first cannon tower of the city, Kiek in de Kök, was then completed, which exceeded in the height and the diameter of all the others.
When like all my other friends, I lost my defensive use, I began to be restructured into residential apartments at the end of the 18th century. The master firefighters Barth and Wagner lived here, at the end of the 19th century, also many other important citizens. Due to the constant reconstruction of my interior, half a century ago, even causing the risk of collapse, the builders reinforced me with a concrete frame, consisting of pillars supporting the floors and the intermediary ceilings. The initial dimensions of the floors and gun ports was restored. I was adapted into the Estonian Architecture Museum in the 1980s, and its exhibition was indeed located here during the first half of the 1990s. These days potters are working here, for whom, a spiral staircase connecting the floors has been installed and also the entrance on the side of the Square of Towers has been re-opened.
Recommendation: After the Loewenschede Tower, it is possible to pass through the Lippe arch and emerge on the side of the “Square of Towers”, in order to admire the wonderful row of medieval towers of and see the lighting effect from park side.