Burg Fronhofen, castle

Burg Fronhofen is a ruin with a round stone tower roughly 60 feet (18 meters) high standing on a hill in Fronreute's center. The tower has two stories with walls about 10 feet (3 meters) thick and was likely built on an artificial earthen mound called a motte.

Burg Fronhofen was built around 1100; its roughly 18-metre tower stump survives. The noble family settled here is first documented in 1171 with Mengoz de Fronhove, and its members served the Hohenstaufen and later the Holy Roman Empire as ministerials. In 1209 the brothers Eberhard and Berthold von Fronhofen called themselves ministerialis regis. A younger Eberhard took the name Eberhardus de Kunigsegge from 1251, after Burg Königsegg, founding the line of the Counts of Königsegg. Later owners came from the Stuben ministerial family.

The tower shapes the village's appearance and serves as a daily reminder of the area's medieval past to local residents. Its central location demonstrates how crucial this position was for controlling the surrounding territory and how profoundly noble families influenced life here.

The tower stump stands in the village centre of Fronhofen, a part of Fronreute in the Ravensburg district. It is reached on foot or by car; the sources give no details on parking or opening times. Visitors see the roughly 18-metre-high remnant of the residential tower from outside.

The castle is also called Römerturm, though it has no Roman origin: the name arose later. The family first documented here in 1171 with Mengoz de Fronhove produced Eberhard, who from 1251 called himself Eberhardus de Kunigsegge after Königsegg castle and founded the line of the Counts of Königsegg. Later owners were the ministerialis family von Stuben.