The 12 Most Beautiful Lookout Towers in Bavaria

Ratzinger Höhe, named after a district in the municipality of Rimsting, is a nearly 700-metre-high ridge nestled between Lake Chiemsee and Lake Simssee.  The charming Alpine countryside, adorned with meadows, clusters of trees, woods and quaint hamlets with orchards, entices you to go for a hike.

At an elevated location, a 16-metre high lookout tower invites you to soak in the views. It can be found in Hitzing. The four-storey tower constructed from fir wood is 16 metres high and was an attraction at the State Garden Show in Rosenheim in 2012. Later it was erected on the Ratzinger Höhe ridge.

Visitors can look out into the distance through two telescopes on the viewing platform: To the south, they have a view of the Chiemgau Alps, which extends from the mountain ranges Hochstaufen and Untersberg to the Hochfelln and Hochgern, the Hochplatte and the Kampenwand. To the west, they can see as far as the Wendelstein, Hinteres Sonnwendjoch and Grosser Traithen in the Mangfall Mountains. Even Lake Chiemsee and Lake Simssee can be seen. There’s also an “adventure trail” with information and play stops that’ll take you leisurely from Rimsting to the tower in about two hours.
chiemsee-alpenland.de

The Taubenberg mountain stands almost 900 metres high in the district of Miesbach. Located in front of the Tegernsee mountains, it is a popular hiking area and an important water supply area for Munich. In 1910/1911, a lookout tower was erected east of the peak at a height of 892 metres. It is 30 metres high and can be climbed using two spiral staircases, each with 105 steps running in opposite directions. When visibility is good, there are beautiful views of the Schliersee and Tegernsee mountains and across the Munich gravel plain to the Bavarian capital.

The tower is open from May to October. You can borrow the key to the tower at the “Berggasthof Taubenberg” restaurant with its panoramic beer garden. You can reach the tower from the restaurant in about fifteen minutes. A circular trail also leads to the pilgrimage church of Nüchternbrunn. You can get to the Berggasthof restaurant directly by car or on various hikes whose starting points can be reached by train or car.
taubenberg.de (only in German)

In Lindau on Lake Constance, ships are greeted not only by a safe harbour, but by a very beautiful one. The lighthouse was built in the southern part of the Old Town, which is situated on an island. A proud, larger-than-life Bavarian lion made of stone and, opposite it, the New Lighthouse signify the entrance to the harbour.

The tower – Bavaria’s only and Germany’s southernmost lighthouse! – went into operation in 1856. Its total height measures 36 metres, while its platform height is 33 metres and its base has a circumference of 24 metres. One special feature is the large clock on the façade. Once you have climbed the 139 steps to the platform, you have a sweeping view: over the city, the shores, Lake Constance and the mountains all around that loom in the Allgäu, in the Austrian Vorarlberg and in eastern Switzerland.

Illustrations and texts adorn the interior walls of the lighthouse. They recount amusing anecdotes and facts worth knowing about Lindau and Lake Constance. The guided tour “The Wife of the Bavarian Lighthouse Keeper” (Die Frau des bayerischen Leuchtturmwärters) also provides detailed information about the remarkable building.
lindau.de

The tower at Mooswaldsee Lake in Leipheimer Moos is home to great ornithological discoveries. It is part of the Swabian Danube Moss. The moor landscape around the lake lies to the north-west of Günzburg. It is the habitat of rare plants and animals such as marsh helleborine and cotton grass, bluethroat and snipe.

With the help of an installed telescope, visitors can observe the birdlife from the viewing platform. Information boards help to identify the birds, and an ornithologist is often present to give expert information. In the evening, for example, you can experience the impressive spectacle of greylag geese rushing into Mooswaldsee Lake to spend the night, see little ringed plovers raising their young or, if you're lucky, spot an osprey. A nesting platform has been specially installed for the birds of prey on an open forest area north of the tower. A boardwalk leads through the moor, with information boards about the flora and fauna along the way. The trail can also be explored with the help of a listening tour app, which can be found at
bayerisch-schwaben.de (only in German)

Tirschenreuth is the main town of the so-called Stiftland, the northernmost tip of Old Bavaria, and less than 20 kilometres from the border with the Czech Republic. The name Stiftland dates back to the Middle Ages and early modern times, when the Waldsassen monastery was a large landowner in the area and in the adjacent Egerland. Pond farming has been practised here, in the northern Upper Palatinate, for around a thousand years. Even today, there is a sea of fish ponds surrounding Tirschenreuth, where carp, pike or tench are bred.

Cycling and hiking trails run through the unique water landscape with its approximately 4,700 ponds. The literal highlight of every tour is the 20-metre-high "Himmelsleiter", or "ladder to heaven", located one and a half kilometres outside of Tirschenreuth. The modern, transparent, staircase-like construction with its slender steel supports blends inconspicuously into the landscape. The platform itself provides a wonderful view over the sea of ponds.
oberpfaelzerwald.de (only in German)