Burg Vogelbühel

Burg Vogelbühel stands on a small hill above Matrei am Brenner in the Tyrolean Alps. It was the oldest of three castles built to control the valley. The site overlooks the Brenner Pass route used since Roman times. The hill itself rises only a few metres above the surrounding fields. A Bronze Age cemetery once covered its slopes. Today the only visible trace is a neat, flat-topped mound where the keep once stood. The castle was first built in the late 12th century by ministerials of the Counts of Andechs. Their names—Eberhard, Konrad and Hagen von Matrei—appear in records from 1209. Political struggles between the Bishop of Brixen and the Counts of Tyrol led to sieges and transfers of ownership. By 1232 the castle returned to Andechs hands under Duke Otto I. After his death it passed to Tyrolean lords and was finally abandoned when the newer Trautson castle was completed. Visitors see a grassy pyramid of earth with no walls or towers left. The mound measures about twenty metres across at the top. A short walk from Matrei’s centre brings you to the quiet field where it stands. The view looks down the Sill valley towards the Inn river. On clear days the snow-capped peaks of the Stubai Alps frame the horizon.