Mouse Tower

Bingen am Rhein, Germany, Germany

---

The Mouse Tower, or Binger Mäuseturm, is a small stone tower standing on an islet in the Rhine River just outside Bingen am Rhein in Rhineland‑Palatinate, Germany. Built in the 13th–14th century by the Archbishops of Mainz, it originally served as a watch‑ and customs tower to control and tax river traffic through the narrow Bingen Hole, often in combination with nearby Ehrenfels Castle. The tower became famous mainly because of a dark medieval legend in which the cruel Archbishop Hatto II is said to have been chased onto the tower and eaten alive by a swarm of mice as punishment for his cruelty, even though the name “Mäuseturm” likely comes from an old word meaning “to keep watch” or possibly a corruption of “toll tower” rather than from actual mice. Over the centuries the structure was rebuilt in Neo‑Gothic style and later used as a signal and lighthouse‑like river‑marker, and today it remains an iconic, isolated landmark of the UNESCO Upper Middle Rhine Valley, visible from boat trips and the Bingen riverbank even though its interior is usually not open to the public.