The 70-metre-tall Perlachturm is a tower

Tower

A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....

 in the central district of Augsburg

Augsburg

Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. Originally built as a watchtower

Watchtower

A watchtower is a type of fortification used in many parts of the world. It differs from a regular tower in that its primary use is military, and from a turret in that it is usually a freestanding structure. Its main purpose is to provide a high, safe place from which a sentinel or guard may...

 in the 10th century, it is nowadays part of an ensemble with the City Hall of Augsburg, a landmark of the Reichsstadt

Free Imperial City

In the Holy Roman Empire, a free imperial city was a city formally ruled by the emperor only — as opposed to the majority of cities in the Empire, which were governed by one of the many princes of the Empire, such as dukes or prince-bishops...

.

Name

The exact origin of the name "Perlachturm" is unknown, with several different theories attempting to explain it. Of the three constituent parts of the name, "Per," "lach" and "turm," only the latter presents no controversy and means "Tower." The conventional wisdom holds, that the first two parts originated from the medieval fairs involving bears on the central square. In Old High German

Old High German

The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...

, Per means bear and lach describes a show, or fair. An information plaque on the tower itself says, that it came from the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 "perlego" ("read through").

See also

• Turamichele
  Turamichele
  Turamichele is the name of a moving mechanical figure on the Perlach Tower next to Perlach church in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. It shows the Archangel Michael fighting with the devil. Every year on 29 September the Turamichele appears in a window on the west side of the tower...
  
   (fighting Archangel Michael
  Michael (archangel)
  Michael , Micha'el or Mîkhā'ēl; , Mikhaḗl; or Míchaël; , Mīkhā'īl) is an archangel in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic teachings. Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Lutherans refer to him as Saint Michael the Archangel and also simply as Saint Michael...
  
   at Perlachturm)
• Mary Untier of Knots
  Mary Untier of Knots
  Mary Untier of Knots or Mary Undoer of Knots is a Baroque icon by Johann George Melchior Schmidtner, of around 1700, in the Catholic pilgrimage church of "St. Peter am Perlach", otherwise Perlach church, in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany.It shows the Virgin Mary untying knots and at the same...
  
  in St. Peter am Perlach

External links

• Perlachturm.de (german)
• Pictures of the tower
• AugsburgWiki (german)