Mouse Tower is a tower on a small island in the Rhine River near Bingen, Germany. A famous legend tells that Archbishop Hatto of Mainz built the tower. According to the legend, during a famine in 974, the cruel archbishop lured the poor and needy of the town into a barn and then set it on fire. As the people shrieked among the flames, the archbishop called out, “Hear, hear how the mice squeak!” Soon afterward, a swarm of mice came to avenge the deaths. The bishop fled to the tower, but the mice swam across the Rhine and devoured him.
The city of Mainz had two archbishops named Hatto during the Middle Ages, but neither burned starving people in barns and neither was eaten by mice. Mauseturm, the German name for the Mouse Tower, appears to be a form of mautturm, which means toll tower. The tower was probably built in the 1200’s as a place for collecting tolls from boats on the Rhine.
