Rats! An Evil Bishop Devoured By Rats

Bingen, Germany

Mauseturm Tower

Legendary site where an evil bishop was devoured by rodents

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mauseturm-tower

“This diminutive toll tower near the town of Bingen is most famously the setting of a grisly cautionary tale from the middle ages.

According to legend, Bishop Hatto II, Archbishop of Mainz was a cruel and selfish ruler, responsible both for the collection of tolls along the Rhine as well as the distribution of food. When famine struck Germany, the townspeople found themselves starving, and they plead with the Archbishop to give them more food from the storehouse. In response, he invited them all to come into the storehouse, and take all the food they could carry. But once the townsfolk were inside the storehouse, he barricaded the doors, and set the place ablaze, remarking to his conspirators that their screams of anguish were comparable to the squeals of rats. . . .”