Schloss Bronnen

Schloss Bronnen stands above the Danube on a steep rock in the Upper Danube Valley near Fridingen. The 12th-century fortress was built by a local free noble family and later passed to the Counts of Zollern. By the 14th century it had become a pawn in regional power struggles, changing hands several times before the Enzberg family secured it in 1409. The site is worth visiting for its layered history and dramatic setting. The Enzbergs turned the crumbling medieval stronghold into a hunting lodge between 1731 and 1755, adding a new chapel in 1755. In the 1930s Gertrud Scholtz-Klink used the castle as a private retreat, filling it with costly tapestries and leaving behind a ghost story from 1935. After war damage and restoration it remains privately owned. Visitors find a compact complex of stone buildings grouped on the rock. The upper storey still shows the grand room once hung with Renaissance tapestries. Below, the steep slope drops to the river and the path that winds along the Danube. The surrounding landscape of wooded hills and rocky outcrops completes the scene.