White Tower - guards the city by Trekki
Originally, Weisser Turm (White Tower) was part of Darmstadt's city wall in 14th century, which was built by the dukes of Katzenelnbogen, the city?s founders. But it was much smaller than today, and also served as defence tower with pinnacles. Early 18th century, it was built up to it's today's height. It is said that it had some secret passages in these days, which was used by the dukes quite frequently to leave the castle and do whatever they wanted to do secretly.In the course of time it was bell tower, dungeon, treasure chamber for the county's archive and today as little museum which houses exhibitions from time to time. During the bombing night of September 11, 1944 in WWII , it was heavily bombed, but reconstructed in the 50-ies.
Today, it's also one of Darmstadt's main meeting points :-)
Guided tours are available; the tower is open Wednesday 15:00-19:00 and Saturday 13:00-17:00.
Update January 2008:
new weblink below (still German only) and revised opening hours.
