The Tanners’ Tower (Turnul Pielarilor), also known as the Small Powder Tower, is a 15th-century defense tower in the Lower Town of Sibiu, standing on Strada Pulberăriei as one of only two surviving towers from this part of the city’s fortifications.
Built in 1457 as part of the fourth defensive enclosure, the tower was entrusted to the tanners’ guild, whose workshops were concentrated in the surrounding Lower Town. Its octagonal plan and four levels gave defenders a broad field of fire, while the projecting upper floor contains openings for dropping burning material and larger embrasures designed for light artillery. The low pyramidal roof gives the tower a heavier, more compact profile than the guild towers along Strada Cetății.
The tower survived a particularly turbulent history because gunpowder was also stored inside it. During the great fire of 1566, the powder exploded and badly damaged the structure, only for another major fire to strike four years later. A third explosion followed in 1638 when lightning ignited the stored powder, after which the tower was rebuilt again in the same year.
Repeated rebuilding explains why the structure seen today reflects several phases rather than one untouched medieval form, but its octagonal mass, projecting upper level and surviving firing openings still clearly reveal its defensive purpose. Its isolated position among the streets of the Lower Town also makes it quite different from the better-known cluster of towers along Strada Cetății.
