What is the Water Tower used for today?

The building houses wine sales on the lower floor and a dedicated wine tasting hall on the top floor.

Where is the Water Tower situated in Maribor?

The tower stands along the Drava River within the Lent district in the city center.

Why was the fortification constructed?

The bastion was erected to protect the municipal port and southeastern city walls from Turkish raids.

What defensive structure preceded the current Water Tower?

A defensive fortification known as the Gunpowder Tower, or Smodniški stolp, guarded the location before this bastion was built.

How was the structure preserved when the Drava River was dammed?

Builder Jože Požauk led an engineering effort that raised the entire stone structure above the reservoir waters.

Maribor · Slowenien

Wasserturm Maribor: was in der Nähe ist, wie man hinkommt und wann man fährt · 2026

Residents settling in Lent quickly adopt the habit of buying regional wine from the Water Tower itself, trading conventional shops for a fortified stone cellar.

Karte der Orte

In der Umgebung3

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Innerhalb von zwei Stunden

Flughafen Maribor≈ 30 Min.Schloss Ptuj≈ 40 Min.

Über den Ort

The Water Tower stands as a late-Renaissance fortification anchored directly to the Lent riverfront.

Italian master builders constructed the pentagonal fortification from massive stone blocks with defensive embrasures to guard the municipal harbor against Ottoman raids. The bastion secured the southeastern corner of the city walls alongside the commercial quay at Lent, where river barges and timber rafts once docked to trade goods. Its thick masonry directly abutted the water, anchoring the riverfront defenses.

Downstream dam construction for a hydroelectric station later raised the river level, threatening to submerge the old riverfront and slating the tower for demolition. While neighboring riverbank fortifications and medieval merchant houses were torn down, builder Jože Požauk organized an engineering rescue. Workers raised the massive masonry structure vertically onto higher ground, preserving the bastion above the new reservoir.

The restored interior operates as a specialist wine shop on the ground level, while the upper floor contains a high-ceilinged tasting hall reminiscent of a banquet chamber. Recognized as the country's oldest wine cellar, the facility focuses entirely on regional vintages rather than standard retail. The surrounding Lent district remains closely tied to viticulture, with the world's oldest grapevine growing nearby.

Verbände

Slovenian wineThe site functions as the country's oldest cellar for regional vintages.
Italian fortificationMaster builders erected pentagonal stone walls against Ottoman incursions.
Lost riverside heritageHydroelectric damming caused the demolition of adjacent medieval bastions.
Oldest grapevineThe historic vine grows along the riverbank a short walk away.

Fakten

The structure houses the oldest active wine cellar in the country.
Builder Jože Požauk directed the mechanical elevation that saved the tower from reservoir waters.
The top floor contains a high-ceilinged tasting hall modeled after medieval banquet rooms.
Italian builders designed the pentagonal bastion with stone embrasures to secure the river port.

Aktualisiert am 24. September 2026Quelle: Wikipedia

Wasserturm Maribor: was in der Nähe ist, wie man hinkommt und wann man fährt · 2026

In der Umgebung3

The Water Tower stands as a late-Renaissance fortification anchored directly to the Lent riverfront.

Anreise und Unterkunft

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