The ori­ginal wooden tower bore the name ‘Warte zu den guten Leuten’ – a watch­tower for the good people. It was replaced in 1414 by the tower that still exists today. Frankfurt’s ‘Gal­genfeld’ (gallows field) was within sight, giving the tower its second name: ‘Gal­gen­warte’. This gallows watch­tower served as one of four watch­towers of Frankfurt’s fortification.

The last change of name took place in 1903. When the muni­ci­pality of St. Gallus was founded, the ‘Gal­gen­warte’ was given its present name: ‘Gal­lus­warte’.

The Gallus dis­trict is one of Frankfurt’s most pro­mising neigh­bour­hoods. As in almost every city, the area around the central station was unpo­pular and received little attention. This has been changing ste­adily over the past years. In 2011, we were reminded of what it looked like in 1888: once again, the ground was covered in sand and rubble, this time at the site of the former main goods station, and once again some­thing new and big was created: the new Euro­pa­viertel (European quarter), which is now coming to life.