Sodni stolp/Judgement tower, Maribor

One of Maribor's famous towers

Photo from 25th August, 2010.

Sodni Stolp or the Judgement tower (also known as Okrogli stolp or Round tower) is one of the 4 remaining fortified towers of the old medieval wall around Maribor. There were more towers in the past. The current form is from the year 1830. The tower stood at the southwest end of the old Maribor, but today it's located within town, on the western part of Lent. This tower is one of Maribor's landmarks and shows how rich the whole history of this town was. Maribor could be called the town of towers. There were 9 of them in the past, today only 4 remain. The Judgement tower was originally built in 1310. It was much smaller than today and it did not have a roof in the shape of a cone. That was added in 1540, but it burned down a century later. After that fire, it was reconstructed in 17th and later 18th century, more floors and a roof were added. The name "sodni" which means in Slovenian "in connection with a court or a judge" comes from the legend, that people were persecuted in the tower, but that never happened (source). Other names for the tower are also Pristaniški stolp (meaning Harbour tower) or Samostanski stolp (meaning Monastery tower), due to a monastery in the vicinity. There are plans to revive the tower until 2012, the interior will be redesigned, floors will be designated for a gallery, a restaurant and a pharmacy.

Sodni stolp after the World War II (photo 1) and after 1967 (photo 2). You can see that a very famous old building named Mariborske Benetke (meaning Maribor's Venice), which was connected to the Judgement tower, doesn't stand there anymore. That's one of the sad parts of Maribor's post WWII history. The local communist government didn't care about this building in 1967, when a hydroelectric power plant was built near Maribor and a lot of buildings in Lent were destroyed, the most famous of them was Benetke. It's really a shame. I hope they would rebuilt it, but so far I haven't seen any plans for that.

Sodni stolp from November 4th, 2010.

Sodni stolp closeup, November 2010.

This tower is simple, but for me very beautiful.

You can see parts of the old wall connected to the Judgement tower. Photo from Augusz 2010.

View from Maribor's day market.

[My SLOVENIA page][My MARIBOR page][All photos by MKL, 2006-2010]
[See also: WATER TOWER][Info sources: Mariborčan, Maribor-Pohorje]
Read also: [Maribor: City of towers]