Vier Türme, Historic building ensemble in Koblenz, Germany.
The Four Towers is an ensemble of four corner buildings at the crossing of Am Plan, Löhrstraße, Altengraben and Marktstraße in Koblenz's old town. Each house carries a richly ornamented oriel, from which the name derives. The houses date from 1689–1692 and are attributed to court architect Johann Christoph Sebastiani, marking the transition from Renaissance to Baroque. Löhrstraße 2 has a two-storey oriel partly in timber framing; Marktstraße 1 kept its oriel through the war.
The original structures were built in 1608 but were destroyed during the War of the Palatinate Succession in 1688. The site was rebuilt between 1689 and 1692 with renewed architectural features that shape how it looks today.
The name comes from the ornate oriel windows on each of the four houses, not from towers. The building at Marktstraße 2 once housed the Hauptwache, as a memorial plaque on the facade notes; today it holds a doctor's practice. The other houses now contain a cigar shop, a jeweller and a fast-food restaurant.
The four houses stand at the crossing of Am Plan, Löhrstraße, Altengraben and Marktstraße, so you meet them from four sides at once. Marktstraße 1 kept its original fabric through the Second World War and was restored in 1978, as an inscription on its oriel records. The ground floors now hold a cigar shop, a jeweller, a fast-food restaurant and a medical practice, so the corner is busiest on weekdays.
One of the buildings, known as Zum heiligen Petrus, housed a pharmacy for more than 270 years, from 1730 until the early 2000s. This remarkably long history as a neighborhood pharmacy makes the building an important part of everyday life in the city.
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