Burgau lies between the Mindel and Kammel rivers. Buildings from different centuries provide a useful thread through the city’s history: the High Medieval castle, the town gate and town hall, as well as chapels and churches. The museum in the castle adds the city’s development and the living conditions in a small town to this architectural perspective. For a culture-focused stay, Burgau offers several clearly distinct historical themes.

From Castle to Market Town

The Burgau Old Town ensemble developed around a High Medieval castle, first mentioned in 1147. A market town grew around it around 1300. These two dates refer to different stages: 1147 marks the castle’s first mention; around 1300 describes the emergence of the market town. Burgau’s medieval beginnings can thus be understood as a sequence of castle and market town.

The town gate took its present form in 1614 and is a landmark of the city. The Old Town Hall was built in 1709/11 to plans by Valerian Brenner; its small clock tower is topped with a bulbous dome. The term refers to the tower’s outward-curving, onion-shaped dome. The castle was rebuilt by 1720 using medieval building elements. It brings together older structures and a later phase of construction.

The Museum in the Castle

The local history museum is now housed in the castle. Since 1907, some of its rooms have been used by the newly established Museum of the City of Burgau. Across more than 700 m² and two floors, the museum presents the city’s history from the Middle Ages to the recent past. It also explores living conditions in a small town over the past 200 years. Its themes thus combine a broad historical sweep with a social perspective: alongside the town’s development, small-town life takes centre stage. The broad overview from the Middle Ages to the recent past and the closer look at 200 years of small-town life give the exhibition two different time scales.

Chapels and Churches from Different Periods

The sacred buildings can be distinguished by their architectural form, furnishings and dates. St. Leonhard’s Cemetery Chapel in Burgau is a chancel-tower chapel with furnishings, built by Georg Kraus in 1667/68. In a chancel-tower chapel, the tower stands above the chancel; the name thus also explains a feature of the building. The cemetery wall, with its round-arched gateways, was built in 1726, later than the chapel.

The Church of the Assumption of Mary in Burgau was built in 1789. The nave and chancel were built in 1788–90 to plans by Kaspar Zengerle; the church contains rare frescoes by J. Baptist Enderle and Konrad Huber.

The Evangelical Lutheran Christ Church dates from a later period: it was built in 1957/58, and the freestanding campanile followed in 1959. A campanile is a freestanding bell tower; here, the construction dates of the church building and tower fall in consecutive years. The religious buildings therefore do not belong to a single period: they range from the 17th-century cemetery chapel to the church and its tower in the mid-20th century.

Discover more destinations: Günzburg, Bubesheim, Bibertal, Jettingen-Scheppach, Kammeltal, Neuburg An Der Kammel, Ursberg, Thannhausen.

Return to the overview of the region: Günzburg.