Take a look inside the Multangular Tower

A dramatic feature of the Museum Gardens is the Multangular Tower which stood at the west corner of the Roman fortress. The lower part is original Roman work, identifiable by the small rectangular facing stones. The upper part, identifiable by larger blocks, is medieval, the result of rebuilding the tower as part of the city defences.

In Roman times the tower may have stood at least 10m high and there was another, matching tower at the south corner of the fortress (under Feasegate). Between the two corners were six great interval towers facing the river along the line of the fortress wall. Fine stretches of this wall, standing to almost full original height, can be seen either side of the Multangular Tower. A detail to look for is the band of red tiles in the middle of the wall face which appears decorative to us but actually served to bind the structure together.

The Multangular Tower and the other towers may have been built at the command of the emperor Septimius Severus who ruled the entire Roman Empire from York in AD 208-11. Like politicians today, Roman emperors liked to build grand structures to show the world how powerful they were!