Old Castle Tannheim

The present-day municipality of Tannheim was a territorial exclave and administrative seat of the former Imperial Abbey of Ochsenhausen from the late 11th century until the secularization in 1803. During the tenure of Imperial Abbot Franziskus Klesin, the castle-like building was erected in the form of a three-story L-shaped complex. The farmstead is conveniently located at the intersection of the roads to Biberach, Leutkirch, Memmingen, and Ulm. In the Pfleghof, business was conducted between the monastery, adjacent territories, and the subjects of the village. Legal transactions, trade in agricultural products, collection of taxes such as the tithe, and their storage in the Pfleghof were further functions of the building.

The Pfleghof also served as a court seat for the monastery. On October 13, 1397, the Roman-German King Wenceslaus of Luxembourg granted the Ochsenhausen monastery imperial immediacy. With the construction of the Pfleghof, Tannheim received its own high and criminal court due to its remoteness. The execution site with gallows was possibly southwest of the Haldenhof on a hill above the Iller.