Goldener Turm, Medieval tower in Regensburg, Germany

The Goldener Turm is a medieval residential tower in the old town of Regensburg, built from light sandstone and topped with a pointed roof. It stands among the tallest surviving towers of its kind in Germany and rises clearly above the surrounding buildings.

The lower four storeys were built around 1250 in rubble stone with corner ashlars for the patrician Waller family's four-winged city castle. After 1300 the upper floors were added with a battlemented top, and around 1600 a pyramidal roof with a painted wooden tower room replaced it. In 1706, after the Marktturm burned down, the tower became the city's watchtower.

The name comes not from the stone but from a tavern housed in the building in the 17th century. The tower belonged to the Haymo or Waller house, a four-winged complex of the Regensburg patrician family of that name. In the 16th century its facade, like those of the town hall and the former market tower, was painted with frescoes showing Landsknecht figures and the city coat of arms; traces survived until 1950.

The building has housed a student residence with 43 units since its 1985 renovation, so the interior is not open to visitors. From the courtyard, reachable through the former Wahlenkapelle passage opened in 1978, you can see the three-sided Renaissance arcades added around 1600. The passage also leads west to Untere Bachgasse.

Regensburg once had over 60 residential towers of this kind, more than any other city north of the Alps at the time. Today only around a dozen remain, and the Goldener Turm is one of the few that has kept nearly its full original height.