Wood Tower, Medieval watchtower in Mainz, Germany.

The Wood Tower is a medieval watchtower on the Rhine waterfront in Mainz, with six floors and a steep hipped roof. Its pointed-arch windows are a clear sign of Gothic construction from the early 15th century.

The tower was built in the first half of the 15th century as part of Mainz's city defenses. For centuries it served both as a watchtower and a prison before being repurposed in the early 1800s.

The tower displays decorative busts of notable figures above the first-floor windows, showing a merchant with his wife and a ruler with his queen. These sculptures reveal how people of different ranks were valued in medieval times.

The tower is owned by the city of Mainz and is not open to the public. Its former gate passage now lies about three metres below street level because the Rhine bank was raised in the 19th and 20th centuries. The German Amateur Radio Club's Mainz branch has its quarters in the top floor and runs a shortwave and ultra-shortwave station there.

The tower takes its name from a wood market that once stood at its gate, where timber floated down the Rhine from southern Germany was sold. This means the tower stood at the crossroads of defense and everyday trade.