Martinstor

The older of Freiburg's two surviving medieval gate towers

The Martinstor stands at the southern end of Kaiser-Joseph-Strasse, the city's main shopping street, where trams now squeeze through its narrow arch. It is the older of Freiburg's two surviving city gates, first mentioned in 1238, and was raised to its current 60-metre height by the architect Carl Schäfer in 1900.

The most unusual thing about the gate today is that a McDonald's occupies its ground floor — and because the building is a protected monument, the chain was forbidden from putting up its golden arches outside. It is reputedly the only McDonald's in the world without them. Look up to see Habsburg coats of arms and the painted Saint Martin sharing his cloak with a beggar.

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The upper levels of the tower bear a plaque memorialising the women burned as witches outside this gate in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The gate itself was almost demolished in the late nineteenth century to make way for the tram, but locals saved it.

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