Mäuseturm
Rheinkai 21, 55411 Bingen am Rhein
Standing on a rocky island in the Rhine is the former watch tower which gets its name from the old German word “musen” (= to spy). It was built in the 14th century as a signal and watch tower for the Ehrenfels customs post. In the 19th century it was restored in the neo-Gothic style and until 1974 it served as a signal station for the regulation of shipping on the river. ‘Mouse Tower’ is associated with the well-known legend about the cruel Archbishop who couldn’t escape a horde of mice, even on the island in the Rhine.
Mäuseturm (Mouse Tower) The Mouse Tower in Binger Loch is located on an inaccessible island and is, next to Pfalzgrafenstein Castle, the only defence tower and watch tower in the middle of the Rhine. Together with Ehrenfels Castle, the Tower forms an ensemble of customs buildings. According to legend, its builder, the Archbishop of Mainz, Hatto I, is said to have denied the poor access to his granaries, burned them in the barn and scorned them as “corn mice” - whereupon he was eaten alive by thousands of mice. The Mouse Tower was indeed constructed by the Archbishops of Mainz, however only between 1298 and 1371. Today’s building in Neo-Gothic style stems from the 19th century. The former grounds of the Landesgartenschau (Federal Garden Show) with a view on the Mouse Tower transformed the Rhine bank to a cultural bank - backdrop, meeting place, playground, open-air stage, park, museum, gallery and site for wine-tasting, all in one. Mäuseturm 55411 Bingen Tel. 06721 - 184205-206 www.bingen.de
