Spandauer Tor

The Spandauer Tor was a historic city gate in Berlin's medieval city wall that stood at the northern end of Spandauer Straße from the thirteenth century. In the seventeenth century, as part of the Baroque fortification works, it was moved to the northeast and given a wooden drawbridge over the moat, which is why it later came to be called simply the bridge. Important trade routes led from here to Spandau, Hamburg, and the surrounding villages. After the fortifications were dismantled, the Hackescher Markt came into being at the fork where today's Oranienburger Straße and Rosenthaler Straße meet. The original wooden bridge was replaced by a sandstone structure in 1785, which had to make way for the S-Bahn in 1877. Today, only the street name An der Spandauer Brücke recalls this historic connection.