Mouse Tower, Medieval toll tower on Rhine island in Bingen am Rhein, Germany.
The Mouse Tower is a stone tower standing on a small island in the Rhine near Bingen, built in neo-Gothic style with several levels and viewing points. The structure rises from the water and forms a landmark visible from long distances along the shipping route.
The tower was built in the first half of the 14th century as a customs watchtower to reinforce the toll barrier of Ehrenfels Castle. It was severely damaged in the Thirty Years' War and the Palatine War of Succession. In 1855 King Friedrich Wilhelm IV commissioned a neo-Gothic reconstruction by Ernst Friedrich Zwirner and Friedrich Albert Cremer, completed in 1856 as a Prussian signal tower.
The structure carries a name rooted in the act of watching and waiting along the river route. Legend links the site to Archbishop Hatto the Second, whose story became part of local folklore about divine punishment and justice.
The tower is not open to the public and can only be viewed from outside. Observation points along the Rhine banks in Bingen offer good views of the structure, especially during boat trips on the river.
The tower's neo-Gothic rebuild was planned by Ernst Friedrich Zwirner, the Cologne Cathedral master builder, with architect Friedrich Albert Cremer; it was finished in 1856. A heraldic eagle carved by Cologne sculptor Stephan in Udelfangen sandstone marks the north facade, recalling the tower's role as a marker of the Prussian border. Its signal duty for shipping at the Binger Loch ended in 1974.
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