The Sunken Castle in the Biburg-see

About two miles above the village of Oetz in the Oetzthal, in the

middle mountains which cross over the valley like a wall, stands the

peak called “Biburgspitz,” at the foot of which lies the little lake

of “Biburg-See.” On the spot where now the See lies, used to stand

the magnificent castle of Biburg, which covered an immense expanse

of ground, and it was in former times the scene of the greatest

festivities, for a very beautiful and rich lady used to be its

mistress; yet it is sad to relate that she was a very wicked woman and

guilty of all sorts of crimes.

She had but one child, whom, like Frau Hütt, she spoiled in every

point; she cleaned it, too, with new bread and cake crumbs, because

they were softer than sponges. One day a venerable hermit who had been

sent to warn the proprietress, arrived in the castle and paternally

exhorted her to give up her evil ways; but in spite of him she carried

on her wicked practices more than ever, so that the hermit went away in

despair. He had scarcely left the castle when it sank, together with

its mistress and her son, into the earth, and a calm See filled up its

place.

But a short time afterwards the lake began to bubble and boil, and the

guilty mistress of the castle rose out of it in the form of a fearful

dragon, or “Lindwurm,” which in its fury bit and tore at the banks of

the See for the purpose of making an outlet for the water. This outlet

forms the little river which runs through the fields belonging to the

parishes of Oetz and Sauters; and the Tyrolians still say of little

rivers that come out of the mountains: “Here a Lindwurm has bored its

way through.”