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A powder tower (German: Pulverturm), occasionally also powder house (Pulverhaus), was a building used by the military or by mining companies, frequently a tower, to store gunpowder or, later, explosives. They were common until the 20th century, but were increasingly succeeded by gunpowder magazines and ammunition depots. The explosion of a powder tower could be catastrophic as, for example, in the Delft Explosion of 1654.
List of powder towers
Buildings formerly used as powder towers include the following:
Germany
These are sorted by states of Germany, since there are so many.
Baden-Württemberg
Bavaria
- Pulverturm, Bad Reichenhall
- Pulverturm, Burghausen
- Färberturm, Gunzenhausen
- Pulverturm, Lindau
- Pulverturm, Memmingen
- Pulverturm, Munich
- Pulverturm, Ochsenfurt
- Pulverturm, Straubing
Brandenburg
Bremen
Lower Saxony
- Pulverturm, Bad Bentheim
- Knochenturm in Einbeck
- Pulverturm, Hameln
- Pulverturm Lingen, Ems
- Pulverturm, Oldenburg
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
The Pulverturm, Demmin, bears the name, but was probably not used for this purpose.
North Rhine-Westphalia
- Langer Turm, Aachen
- Pulvertürmchen in Aachen
- Pulverturm, Meschede
- Buddenturm in Münster
- Pulverturm, Rheinberg
- Pulverturm, Wiedenbrück
Rhineland-Palatinate
Saxony
- Pulverturm, Johanngeorgenstadt
- Pulverturm in Zwickau
Saxony-Anhalt
Thuringia
Austria
Czechia
- Powder Tower, Prague (Prašná brána)
Italy
Latvia
- Powder Tower, Riga (Pulvertornis)
Namibia
Switzerland
- Pulverturm, Zofingen
USA
Gallery
- The Powder Tower in Prague
- Pulverturm in Oldenburg with remains of the old town wall
- Pulverturm Wiedenbrück, exterior view
- Pulverturm in Landsberg am Lech
- Pulverturm in Lindau
- Pulverturm in Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate
- Pulverturm in Riga
- Pulverturm in Memmingen
- Langer Turm in Aachen
- Pulverturm in Linz am Rhein
- Pulverturm in Rottenburg/Neckar
- Pulverturm in Johanngeorgenstadt
- Pulverturm in Otjimbingwe, Namibia
- Pulverturm in Zofingen
- Pulverturm in Zwickau
Literature
- Adolf Weinbrenner: Pulvermagazin, in Otto Lueger (ed.): Lexikon der gesamten Technik und ihrer Hilfswissenschaften, Vol. 7 Stuttgart, Leipzig 1909, pp. 274–275; digitalised at zeno.org
- Brewer, Ted (1999). Czech and Slovak Republics Guide. Londres: Open Road Publishing.
- Legal, Claus; Legal, Gert (2020). Friedrich II. von Preußen und Quintus Icilius: Der König und der Obrist. Munique: utzverlag GmbH.
- Prokopovych, Markian (2009). Habsburg Lemberg: Architecture, Public Space, and Politics in the Galician Capital, 1772-1914. Lafaiete Oeste, Indiana: Imprensa da Universidade de Purdue.