Powder tower
A powder tower, occasionally also powder house, 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
Bremen
*Lower Saxony
- Pulverturm, Bad Bentheim
- Knochenturm in Einbeck
- Pulverturm, Hameln
- Pulverturm Lingen, Ems
- Pulverturm, Oldenburg
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
- Pulverturm, Anklam
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
Namibia
- Powder Tower, Otjimbingwe, Namibia
Switzerland
- Malteserturm in Chur
- Pulverturm, Merano
- Pulverturm, Zofingen
USA
Literature
- Adolf Weinbrenner: Pulvermagazin, in Otto Lueger : Lexikon der gesamten Technik und ihrer Hilfswissenschaften, Vol. 7 Stuttgart, Leipzig 1909, pp. 274–275; at zeno.org