Powder tower



A powder tower (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

 * Pulverturm, Leutkirch im Allgäu
 * Pulverturm, Vellberg

Bavaria

 * Pulverturm, Bad Reichenhall
 * Pulverturm, Burghausen
 * Färberturm, Gunzenhausen
 * Pulverturm, Lindau
 * Pulverturm, Memmingen
 * Pulverturm, Munich
 * Pulverturm, Ochsenfurt
 * Pulverturm, Straubing

Brandenburg

 * Pulverturm, Templin

Bremen

 * Bremer Pulvertürme

Lower Saxony

 * Pulverturm, Bad Bentheim
 * Knochenturm in Einbeck
 * Pulverturm, Hameln
 * Pulverturm Lingen, Ems
 * Pulverturm, Oldenburg

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

 * Pulverturm, Anklam

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

 * Pulverturm, Andernach
 * Pulverturm, Linz am Rhein
 * Pulverturm, Mainz

Saxony

 * Pulverturm, Johanngeorgenstadt
 * Pulverturm in Zwickau

Saxony-Anhalt

 * Pulverturm, Quedlinburg

Thuringia

 * Pulverturm, Greiz
 * Pulverturm, Jena

Austria

 * Pulverturm, Krems

Czechia

 * Powder Tower, Prague (Prašná brána)

Italy

 * Pulverturm, Schlanders

Latvia

 * Powder Tower, Riga (Pulvertornis)

Namibia

 * Powder Tower, Otjimbingwe, Namibia

Switzerland

 * Malteserturm in Chur
 * Pulverturm, Merano


 * Pulverturm, Zofingen

USA

 * Powder House (Dedham, Massachusetts)

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