Fire Tower, Medieval watchtower in Sopron, Hungary

The Fire Tower is a 58-metre tower on Sopron's Main Square, built from 1290 as the northern gate tower of the city walls. Its lower square section, probably on a Roman gate tower, carries a plain cylindrical shaft with 14th–15th-century Gothic windows. A Renaissance arcade rings the shaft, above which an octagonal storey with 1735 clock faces rises to a copper onion dome, an open lantern with a bell, and a double-headed eagle weathervane.

The tower's square lower section was built in Gothic style between 1290 and 1340, probably on a Roman gate tower; the remains of the northern Roman city gate were found and conserved beside it in the late 1960s. After a fire destroyed it in 1676, rebuilding began in 1680 with donations, masters from Wiener Neustadt and stone from local quarries. The two-headed eagle weather vane, a gift from King Ferdinand II and Queen Eleanor, was placed on top after the fire.

The gate carries a Baroque stone frame designed by Rezső Hikisch in 1928, crowned by Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl's sculpture group of Hungária gathering the towns that voted on 14 December 1921 to remain in Hungary. The tower is thus called the symbol of fidelity, and the Hűség napja is still marked each December.

The spiral staircase starts at the original medieval entrance and leads to the lower circular balcony, the former watchmen's post, after 119 steps. The 1970 concrete stair hall supports the tower and replaced the old watchman's house. The gate passage was walled up in the 1890s and reopened to its original width after the 2009-2012 reinforcement.

The two-headed eagle on the finial was a gift from King Ferdinand II and Queen Eleanor for the 1622 Diet and her coronation, but it was only mounted after the 1676 fire, for the feast of Emperor Leopold's name day, when the repaired clock rang again. The tower keepers also had a musical privilege: from 1546 a musician watchman, later with three trumpeters, signalled approaching enemies, dignitaries or wine shipments, and blew the horn every quarter hour until 1885.