Old Gate, Medieval city tower in Speyer, Germany

The Old Gate, also known as the Altpörtel, is a medieval city gate and tower at the southern edge of Speyer's old town in Germany. It stands at the end of Maximilianstraße and has clock dials on its outer walls that are visible from a distance.

Construction of the Altpörtel started in the 13th century on the remains of an older fortification, and the upper sections were finished in the early 1500s. The different building phases are still readable in the masonry, which changes in style from bottom to top.

The Altpörtel marks the far end of Maximilianstraße, the long straight road that connects the cathedral to the southern gate. Walking this street today still follows the same route that imperial processions once took through the city.

The tower is not climbed: its five accessible levels hold an exhibition on Speyer's town fortifications and the gate's own history, housed in the lower levels. Look for the iron bar of the Speyerer Werkschuh on the northern side of the passage, 28.889 cm long and divided into twelve inches, once the city's legal standard for merchants.

An iron bar is still embedded in the wall of the northern passage inside the tower, where it once served as the official standard for measuring cloth and goods sold in the city. Merchants used it to settle disputes over measurements well into the early 1800s.