Close Up of the Old Gate at Speyer
The city of Speyer is home to another UNESCO World Heritage site. It is within reasonable train distance from the city of Frankfurt so I thought that I should go visit it along with two other sites which would be within the area. I braved the freezing temperature to go to Speyer and you can still see signs of snow on the ground. It was still below freezing so it wasn’t going away anytime soon. Fortunately, most of the streets were clear and they were not slippery at all. I got out of the Speyer train station and started going to the city center where all the action is.
Altpörtel at Speyer
On the way in the city center, I had to pass through what seems to be the old city gates of Speyer. The gate is punctuated by a clock tower that is also a very good landmark. The Old Gate or Altpörtel marks the main entrance to the city back then. It was built in the thirteenth century and partially in the sixteenth century. The tower was spared destruction from the French during a war. The people convinced the French to spare the tower because it might cause the collapse of the nearby monastery. While the tower was spared, the rest of the city wasn’t.
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