Severinstorburg

This guide to the Severinstorburg gate tower in Cologne moves from 1841, when the city's overcrowded prison spilled inmates into this medieval gate, back through centuries of public punishment staged on this exact site. You'll hear how a lesser offender was forced into a heavy coat called the Huick and marched down Severinstraße while crowds jeered, and how a worse sentence meant a flogging that ran the length of the same street. Stand at the tower and picture the condemned walking free at the very spot where you're standing now.