The path goes straight to this tower, and at the foot of it is the
entrance to the first plateau. Then along the edge of this plateau the
way winds southward, entirely commanded again by the wall of the second
plateau, at the foot of which there probably used to be a trench. Over
this a bridge led to the gate of the second plateau. The trench has been
long since filled in, but the huge round tower which guarded the gate
still remains and is the Vestner Thurm. The Vestner Thurm of Sinwel
Thurm (sinwel = round), or, as it is called in a charter of the year
1313, the "Middle Tower," is the only round tower of the Burg. It was
built in the days of early Gothic, with a sloping base, and of roughly
flattened stones with a smooth edge. It was partly restored and altered
in 1561, when it was made a few feet higher and its round roof was
added. It is worth paying the small gratuity required for ascending to
the top. The view obtained of the city below is magnificent. The Vestner
Thurm, like the whole Imperial castle, passed at length into the care of
the town, which kept its Tower watch here as early as the fourteenth
century.
The well which supplied the second plateau with water, the "Deep Well,"
as it is called, stands in the center, surrounded by a wall.
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