Burgstall Tannenberg

The Burgstall Tannenberg marks the site of a vanished high-medieval hilltop castle perched at 860 metres above sea level on a spur called the Schlossplatz. It lies about 550 metres south-south-west of Tannenberg church, a hamlet belonging to the village of Burggen in the Weilheim-Schongau district of Bavaria. The castle belonged to the lords of Tannenberg, a noble family recorded in the region during the 12th and 13th centuries. Although no stone walls remain, the wooded knoll is protected as a scheduled monument under the number D-1-8230-0008. The Bavarian State Office for Monument Conservation recognises it as a medieval stronghold of the high and late Middle Ages. Local historian Werner Meyer describes the site in his 1986 handbook on Upper Bavarian castles, noting the family’s influence before the fortress fell out of use. Visitors walk through beech and spruce woodland to reach the flat summit where the castle once stood. A low earth rampart still curves around the edge, giving a sense of the original defences. On clear days the Alps rise to the south while the valley of the Lech glints in the distance. The quiet clearing offers a place to pause and picture the timber towers and palisades that vanished centuries ago.