A powder tower (), 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

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

• Despite its name the Powder Tower in Prague was never actually used to store gunpowder

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)

Gallery

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

External links