The three historic water towers at the Roten Tor sit in a courtyard behind Augsburg's Red Gate, each built at a different moment in the city's history to solve the same problem: getting clean water uphill to the wealthy residents and grand fountains of Maximilianstraße.

The oldest, the Kastenturm or Chest Tower, was converted from a medieval fortification tower in 1599. It fed the three great bronze fountains of Maximilianstraße and, beyond that, supplied water to exactly one private household in Augsburg: that of the prince bishop.

The Großer Wasserturm, standing 30 metres tall, dates to the 1300s and was built to generate the pressure needed to push water to the upper town. The Kleiner Wasserturm followed some fifty years later when demand outgrew the first.

Inside, the towers are decorated with plastered ceilings and bear the initials MCW throughout. They belong to Caspar Walter, the city's Well Master from 1701 to 1769, who wrote sixteen books on hydraulics and built the spiral staircase in the Chest Tower himself.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours use the towers to trace Augsburg's UNESCO-listed water management system and the engineering that kept the city's fountains running for centuries.