Burgstall Eschenlohe

A ruined hilltop fortress once stood on the Burgstallberg, 665 metres above sea level, near the village of Eschenlohe in southern Bavaria. Built in the 12th century by the local counts, it appears in a charter of 1157 as the home of a man called Werinher. The walls were strengthened between 1208 and 1228, then passed through several owners: the bishoprics of Freising and Augsburg, and finally Ettal Abbey. By the mid-1300s the castle had been pulled down, and its last remains were cleared away around 1680. Today only earthworks and fragments of masonry remain of the medieval stronghold. Two defensive ditches run beside the main rampart, and traces of cellars and tunnels can still be seen. The hilltop is crowned by the small Baroque chapel of St Nikolaus, whose walls incorporate stones taken from the old ruin. Visitors walk up a quiet woodland path to reach the Vestbichel clearing. The chapel stands on the former motte, its simple white façade framed by beech and spruce. A low stone wall marks the line of the vanished keep, while the surrounding ditches form shallow, grassy hollows. The air carries the scent of pine and the distant sound of the Loisach valley below.