The Maiden's Tower (Jungfrutornet)

Wall tower with a grim medieval legend embedded in the stone

A small round tower built into the northern stretch of the city wall, distinguished mainly by the dark story attached to it. The tower itself is closed, but you can walk up to the base and read the plaque, then continue along one of the most scenic stretches of the wall walk.

Stories like this — half history, half folk myth — cling to almost every stone in Visby. The locals will tell you a dozen of them if you let them, and the tourist office runs evening walking tours through summer that lean into the gothic atmosphere.

things to do sight
A story
Legend has it that during Valdemar Atterdag's 1361 siege, a young Visby woman fell for one of the Danish soldiers and showed him a secret way under the wall. When the city fell, her treachery was discovered and she was bricked up alive in this tower. Whether or not the story is true, the tower has carried the name for at least 500 years.