Discover Bühl: Schlossberg, St. Margaretha and Cycle Route 1

Bühl brings local history and landscape together: a castle once stood on Schlossberg, the Catholic parish church of St. Margaretha retains parts of its choir, and Cycle Route 1 passes through the town. The protected slope of Schlossberg and a large fallow deer enclosure on the edge of town are also among the local features. This gives you a practical starting point when choosing a hotel in Bühl: you can make architectural history, the landscape or the described cycle route the focus of your stay.

Schlossberg and St. Margaretha: Local history

A castle once stood on Bühl’s Schlossberg. During the Peasants’ War in 1525, it was stormed by the Leipheim contingent. Schlossberg is therefore associated both with the former castle site and with a specific event in local history. The Catholic parish church of St. Margaretha offers another glimpse into architectural history: it retains parts of the choir and a substructure built before 1488. This early date refers to the substructure; it does not automatically apply to the entire church.

Beside St. Margaretha stands a late medieval stone cross. The church and the cross thus represent different historical themes: on the one hand, the surviving structural elements of a church building; on the other, an independent stone monument from the Middle Ages. Together with the former castle, they create a local focus on architectural and local history, without suggesting that these different historic features all date from the same period.

The Schlossberg slope, valleys and Cycle Route 1

The landscape around Schlossberg also has its own significance: the Schlossberg slope is protected as a valuable landscape feature. For those interested in cycling, Cycle Route 1 follows a described sequence of places and landscapes. It passes through Ober- and Unterfahlheim, Echlishausen and Bühl into the neighboring district of Günzburg, then continues via Silheim and picturesque Ettlishofen along a quiet district road through the idyllic Osterbach Valley.

The landscape between the Biber and Osterbach rivers is characterized by tranquil valleys fringed with spruce and mixed forests. On the edge of Bühl, a large fallow deer enclosure lies on the right-hand side of the route. The cycle route description thus combines specific place names with a distinctive valley landscape; the enclosure is another nature-related feature on the edge of Bühl. The route and the protected slope offer different perspectives: one focuses on travelling through the valleys, the other on the landscape feature at Schlossberg.

More architectural history in the wider destination of Bibertal

The wider destination of Bibertal also has historic churches with clearly distinct phases of construction. The Catholic Church of St. Apollonia in Silheim has a late Gothic core, was given a Baroque makeover in the second quarter of the 18th century, and has a tower dating from 1730. The Catholic Church of St. Ulrich and St. Leonhard in Ettlishofen also has a late Gothic core and was remodelled in 1834. This allows a Baroque makeover with a dated tower to be compared with a later remodelling as distinct stages in architectural history.

Further historic features can be found in the architecture of chapels and houses. A wayside chapel dating from the 18th century stands on the road to Großkissendorf in Silheim. At the northern edge of Ettlishofen, there is a wayside chapel with historic furnishings; a medieval stone cross stands beside it. A half-timbered house dating from the second half of the 17th century is also located at Deiblerstraße 20 in Ettlishofen. These examples complement the churches with smaller structures and a historic residence, while the information about Bühl itself remains focused on Schlossberg, the parish church, the stone cross, the landscape and the cycle route.

For the wider travel overview: Bibertal.