Burg Traunstein

Burg Traunstein stands on a rocky spur 590 metres above sea level, overlooking the Traun river on the south-east edge of Traunstein’s old town. The site once commanded the main bridge over the Traun and protected the town below. Built in the late 12th century by the lords of Truna, it appears in records from 1245 as Trauwenstein and again in 1361 as a fortified stronghold. The castle passed from the monastery of Baumburg to the archbishop of Salzburg and then to the dukes of Bavaria, who ran a district court there. By the mid-13th century a ring wall enclosed the buildings, and a square tower stood on the rock. The castle covered about 3 200 square metres and had little space for stores or workshops, suggesting its main purpose was to show the duke’s authority over Traunstein. Excavations in 2006 uncovered the foundations of a tower measuring roughly eleven by eleven metres. The rest of the site has been built over, leaving only traces beneath the modern streets. After a fire in 1704 during the War of Spanish Succession, the ruins were dismantled and the stone used to rebuild the town. Today the former castle yard lies beneath later buildings, but the outline of the spur and the excavated tower base remain visible. Visitors can walk the old ridge and see where the ring wall once ran. The view from the spur still looks down on the Traun and across the rooftops of the old town. The site is marked on local walking routes and is recognised as a medieval monument in the Bavarian heritage atlas.