Severinstorburg, Medieval fortified gateway in Altstadt-Süd, Germany

The Severinstorburg is a gate fortress of Cologne's medieval wall, built in the first half of the 13th century from tuff. Its four-storey tower rises above a rectangular base pierced by a pointed archway; the tower has an asymmetrical hexagonal plan with a crenellated top. Two small flanking turrets with conical roofs, added later and covered in the 17th century, stand at mid-height.

Built in the first half of the 13th century as a massive tower gate with an asymmetrical hexagonal upper structure of tuff, the Severinstorburg guarded the road south to Bonn. In 1235 Cologne received Princess Isabella of England here, and in 1327 Emperor Louis IV opened an eight-day tournament. After the city walls were razed in 1881 it housed a natural history museum, later a hygiene museum, and under National Socialism the Cologne Hitler Youth.

The gate is named after the parish of St. Severinus, whose patron saint was a bishop of Cologne said to be buried on Severinstraße. Each year at Weiberfastnacht the Reiter-Korps Jan von Werth reenacts the legend of Jan von Werth before the gate, and the Cologne Rose Monday procession traditionally starts by passing through it.

The tower stands on Chlodwigplatz at the junction of Severinstraße, Severinswall and Kartäuserwall in Cologne's Altstadt-Süd. It is the city's official wedding venue, and the Bürger- und Severinsstube and Turmsaal can be rented for private celebrations. Several metres of the adjoining medieval city wall survive here, unlike at the Eigelstein and Hahnentor gates.

In July 2005, digging for the Cologne north-south metro line just south of the gate exposed the foundations of Bastion II St. Severin, a 20-metre-long, 16-metre-wide outwork with walls 4.50 metres thick, raised around 1474 against Charles the Bold of Burgundy. The city now plans to dismantle the excavated walls and rebuild them near their original site.