Dansker

The dansker at the Ordensburg in Kwidzyn (formerly Marienwerder)

A dansker (also danzker) is a toilet facility, belonging to a castle, that is housed in a tower over a river or stream. The tower, a type of garderobe tower, is linked to the castle over a bridge, which has a covered or enclosed walkway. The dansker is frequently found on German ordensburgen and is an architectural feature of the 13th and 14th centuries.

The origin of the word, first used in 1393, is probably the town of Danzig.

A famous example is the dansker at the ordensburg in Kwidzyn (formerly Marienwerder), although it was rebuilt in the 19th century and no longer retains its medieval appearance.

See also

• Garderobe

Literature

• Horst Wolfgang Böhme, Reinhard Friedrich, Barbara Schock-Werner (ed.): Wörterbuch der Burgen, Schlösser und Festungen. Reclam, Stuttgart, 2004, ISBN 3-15-010547-1, p. 108.
• Dansker. In: Ernst Seidl (ed.): Lexikon der Bautypen. Reclam, Stuttgart. 2006, ISBN 978-3-15-010572-6, p. 115–116.