Skip to content

Lechfall

Lechfall is a twelve-metre waterfall on the Lech River at the southern edge of Füssen, Bavaria. The water pours across a broad weir, creating a striking engineered cascade above a deep gorge. Built between 1784 and 1787, the structure harnessed hydropower and helped protect Füssen from flooding. A diversion tunnel and minimum water flows keep the cascade running while the river continues through the rocky channel.

The gorge formed around 12,000 years ago, when melting ice from the Lech glacier drained a large lake towards Pfronten. The river cut through a rocky ridge between the Falkenstein ridge and the Ammergau Alps. From the König-Max-Steg, a footbridge built in 1895, you can see the water’s distinctive colour and the narrow gorge below. A raised section and barrier-free viewing platform date from the bridge’s 2015 renovation.

A bust of King Maximilian II occupies a niche above the gorge. Across the river, the Magnustritt marks a supposed footprint from the legend of Saint Magnus. The Lechfall and gorge rank among Bavaria’s top one hundred geotopes, while the gorge itself holds natural-monument status. High-water marks on the western bank reveal the river’s force, especially after snowmelt.

City
Füssen
Content updated

Take this page with you

The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.

  • Download on the App Store
  • Get it on Google Play

Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Füssen. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.

What is myTuur?

myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.