Map of Lake Constance from above, Bodensee Weinfest Meersburg marked with a wine glass

Festival · Lake Constance

Bodensee Weinfest Meersburg

Lake Constance wine festival on medieval Schlossplatz since 1974. 20+ wineries, fresh lake fish, local brass bands. Famous for Weissherbst rose.

What to do there

FestivalBodensee Weinfest MeersburgMüller-Thurgau exists on Lake Constance because Johann Baptiste Röhrenbach rowed 400 grafted vines across the lake in a fishing boat on an April night in 1925. German authorities had banned the variety. He rowed for it anyway. Meersburg's Altes Schloss — the oldest inhabited castle in Germany, seventh century — survived the first cannon fire ever used on German soil in 1334 and didn't fall. Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Germany's greatest female poet, moved into this castle in 1841 and died here in 1848. The Staatsweingut has been making wine since 1210.