Schloss Luxburg, Medieval castle in Egnach, Switzerland

Schloss Luxburg is a moated castle in Egnach, now about 200 metres from the shore of Lake Constance because of silting. Its main house is a three-storey block on a stone base with a steep gable roof and a small square roof turret; the north gable side still shows a painted coat of arms with a knight and a clock. Of the two former octagonal corner towers, the northern one survives, raised by a baroque hood to stand two storeys above the house. A long two-storey wing with a hipped-gable roof and dormers encloses a narrow courtyard.

Oswald Kröll, a linen merchant and mayor of Lindau, inherited the estate around 1490 and built a summer house with two small towers here in 1498. In 1547 his three sons drowned in a storm on the crossing from Luxburg to Lindau. The castle was sold in 1596 to Wolf Dietrich von Hallwil, and in 1761 to Johannes Girtanner, ennobled in 1776 as Edler von Luxburg.

The castle shapes the village character of Egnach and displays architectural features from different periods. Visitors can observe how the medieval structure blended with later additions over time.

The castle sits on elevated ground with good visibility from the village and is reachable via local paths. Visitors should note that development plans are ongoing and the current state may change.

The castle originally stood on Niderstad island, but natural sedimentation gradually moved it away from the water. Today the former island fortress sits roughly 200 meters from the shore, revealing a rare geological shift in the Swiss Lake Constance region.