Schlossturm Düsseldorf

The Schlossturm stands apart as the lone survivor of a seventeenth-century ducal castle that once anchored this riverbank. Its steep, stepped gables and rounded corner towers distinguish it from the newer, flatter buildings nearby. Fire leveled the main palace in eighteen seventy-two, but this tower remained, eventually serving as a maritime museum. During the Second World War, bombs gutted the interior. Workers cleared the rubble, and the structure stayed standing, a solitary marker of the city’s early defensive layout.