The tower was first mentioned in 1330 as the Sand Tower. The Swedish attack of 1621 destroyed it except for the basement, and the current tower was completed in 1650 on that base. The article names no builder or architect, and the infobox calls the style medieval. It is brick on the outer side, while the city-side wall is wood, because brick was expensive. The roof stands 84 feet (25.6 m) high, the diameter is 47 feet (14.3 m), and the outer wall is about 10 feet (3 m) thick. The cross-section is horseshoe-shaped.
It stored gunpowder, which gave it its 17th-century name, and later served as a prison and a weapons store until 1883. Cannonballs in the walls commemorate the Second Northern War.
A renovation from 1937 to 1940 made it part of the Latvian War Museum.
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