1544

Hans Mandel, a Hutterite, was imprisoned here for 22 weeks. His jailers tortured him in an effort to make him recant, but they were unsuccessful. Eventually, Mandel was able to slip out of the iron fetters around his ankles by hammering them with stones. He then knotted together the ropes used to lower food to him and let himself down from the top of the tower. Mandel's next appearance in the record occurred 16 years later, near Rosenheim, Germany.