Burgberg Tower

The Burgbergturm stands on the 535-metre Burgberg near Frankenhardt in the Stuttgart region. A wooden tower 30 metres high, it rises above a stone base and is clad in red diamond-shaped panels. Below, a restaurant and a children’s playground share the hilltop with the tower. The first viewing platform was built in 1885 by the Crailsheim Beautification Society under forester Paradeis at a cost of 1,000 marks. Plans for a taller tower in 1904 failed when 20,300 marks could not be raised. The present structure, completed in 1961, has 146 steps and was erected with the help of director Georg Fahrbach, Gau leader Wilhelm Andrassy, architect Brüninghaus and local firms. Inside, a wooden staircase leads to a closed viewing gallery reached through four shuttered windows. Each shutter carries a hand-painted orientation map. From the platform there is a wide panorama: to the west the Limpurger Mountains, to the north the Hohenloher plain, to the east Crailsheim and the Hesselberg, and to the south the Ellwanger Keuper hills and the escarpment of the Swabian Alb.