The Schwabentor (English Swabian Gate), also called Obertor in the Middle Ages, is the more recent of the two remaining city gates of the medieval defensive wall of

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

, Germany.

History

The gate tower built around 1250 was originally open towards the inside of the city and was only enclosed with a stone wall in 1547. In 1572, a stair turret was added; in the same year Matthias Schwäri painted a picture of a merchant with a cart on the inner wall. In the 19th century, this picture sparked a legend about a Swabian man who came to Freiburg with two barrels full of gold to buy the town. He was ridiculed, especially after it turned out that the barrels only contained sand and pebbles. Before his departure, his wife had secretly replaced the gold with a worthless filling. Until 1900 the Schwabentor remained mostly unchanged. Then it was almost doubled in height according to the design of Carl Schäfer and equipped with a

crow-stepped gable A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in ...

modelled on city towers of Northern Germany. In 1903 Fritz Geiges added a painting of Freiburg's city patron, aint George depicted as a dragon hunter on the exterior. The conversions ended in 1913 with the building of historicized annexes. The conversion was partially undone in 1954, and the Schwabentor was provided with a simpler

tented roof A tented roof (also known as a pavilion roof) is a type of polygonal hip roof, hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak.W. Dean EastmanHometown Handbook: Architecture./ref> Tented roofs, a hallmark of medieval religious archite ...

, which was similar to the original one, and a bell turret with an

onion dome An onion dome is a dome whose shape resembles an onion. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the tholobate (drum) upon which they sit, and their height usually exceeds their width. They taper smoothly upwards to a point. It is a typical ...

. The keystone of the inner arch shows a Romanesque depiction of the "

Boy with Thorn ''Boy with Thorn'', also called ''Fedele'' (Fedelino) or ''Spinario'', is a Greco-Roman Hellenistic bronze sculpture of a boy withdrawing a thorn from the sole of his foot, now in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome. There is a Roman marble vers ...

", an

antique An antique () is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely to describe any object that i ...

figurine, which is interpreted in a Christian way here, meaning that man walks the earth with the thorn of the

Original sin Original sin () in Christian theology refers to the condition of sinfulness that all humans share, which is inherited from Adam and Eve due to the Fall of man, Fall, involving the loss of original righteousness and the distortion of the Image ...

within him. Whoever passes through the gate should be reminded of it. Next to the gate there is a square, which is unofficially called Platz der letzten Barrikade von 1848 (English "Square of the Last Barricade of 1848"). On Easter Monday of 1848, an association of independent, military volunteers of

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

was defeated by the superior government troops of the

Grand Duke of Baden The Grand Duchy of Baden () was a German polity on the east bank of the Rhine. It originally existed as a sovereign state from 1806 to 1871 and later as part of the German Empire until 1918. The duchy's 12th-century origins were as a margravi ...

. The Schwabentor is being renovated since summer 2012 and is to be finished in November 2013. After removing the plaster it became apparent that the damages were more severe than anticipated. The previous extension of the tower produced fissures in the walls, and the foundation has to be reinforced because it isn't stable enough. To examine this, exploratory drillings were scheduled for April 2013.Risse im Schwabentor – Sanierung dauert bis Ende 2013
Badische Zeitung In 2022, it was suggested to become world heritage.

Traffic

The Schwabentor is located on the border of the pedestrian area of the city centre and usually only one line of Freiburg's tram's goes through it heading outside of the town. The annex on the north side is reserved for the tram, bikers, taxis, delivery traffic and inhabitants of the city centre heading downtown. All other traffic is led past its right hand side.

Museum

Since 1969 there is a small, private museum, named the Zinnfigurenklause (German ''Zinnfigur'' is a tin figure) in the Schwabentor. Different scenes of the region's history are depicted in the museum, with the help of about 9,000 tin figures in

Diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional model either full-sized or miniature. Sometimes dioramas are enclosed in a glass showcase at a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies like mili ...

s, mostly from the freedom movements in the South of Germany (

Battle of Sempach The Battle of Sempach was fought on 9 July 1386, between Leopold III, Duke of Austria and the Old Swiss Confederacy. The battle was a decisive Swiss victory in which Duke Leopold and numerous Austrian nobles died. The victory helped turn the lo ...

peasant revolts This is a chronological list of revolts organized by peasants. Background The history of peasant wars spans over two thousand years. A variety of factors fueled the emergence of the peasant revolt phenomenon, including: * Tax resistance * So ...

Revolution of 1848 The revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the springtime of the peoples or the springtime of nations, were a series of revolutions throughout Europe over the course of more than one year, from 1848 to 1849. It remains the most widespre ...

), but also from the time of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

Literature

* Peter Kalchthaler: ''Freiburg und seine Bauten. Ein kunsthistorischer Stadtrundgang.'' Revised 4th edition, Promo-Verlag, Freiburg (Breisgau), 2006, , No. 41: Schwabentor.

References

{{coord, 47, 59, 34, N, 7, 51, 15, E, region:DE-BW_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Buildings and structures in Freiburg im Breisgau Tourist attractions in Freiburg im Breisgau Gates in Germany