Directly to its west is the Staffelsee lake and to the south are the peaks and ridges of the Ammergau Alps beginning with the Hörnle and extending up to the Ettaler Manndl, southwest of the Wetterstein.

From the reign of Septimius Severus, a Roman road called Via Raetia led above the Brenner Pass and Seefeld Saddle through the upper Isar-Loisachtal valleys all the way to Augsburg.

Signs of Celtic and Roman settlements have been found on the now-eroded moss area around the Moosberg in the Murnauer Moos.

In 1350 Louis V, Duke of Bavaria granted Murnau the Blutbann (the right of high justice), the Niederlagerecht (the staple right), and the right to hold a market weekly on Wednesdays and at Michaelmas.

In 1803 the Ettal Abbey was dissolved, the office of Pfleger was abolished and Murnau was assigned to the district court of Weilheim.

The town suffered a major fire in 1835 and subsequently was almost completely rebuilt, leading to the enclosed townscape seen today.

In 1908 two pairs of artists (Gabriele Münter[5] and Vassily Kandinsky;[6] and Marianne von Werefkin[7] and Alexej Jawlensky[8]) stayed in Murnau at the same time to paint together.

[9] Through their pictures of Murnau and its scenery, which they continued to paint until 1914, the market town became famous to a worldwide art audience.

Today, the Münter-Haus ("Russian House"),[10] where Münter moved in 1909 with Kandinsky, is one of the most prominent cultural attractions of Murnau; as is also the Castle Museum with its art collection.

[13] In the war, Polish officers were imprisoned in the Werdenfelser barracks, which housed the Oflag VII-A POW camp.

Along with the Geschwister Scholl, the 23-years-old Probst was found guilty after a two-hour trial, and beheaded by guillotine the same day February 22, 1943.

Numerous country houses, including some villas and a sports hall, which was built by Emanuel von Seidl, were demolished in the 1960s and 70s.

[citation needed] On 1 April 1994 they moved to the substantially smaller but more modern Werdenfelser barracks on the northern edge of Murnau.

Since the 1 January 1996 Murnau soldiers are represented regularly in international missions of the German army (IFOR, SFOR, EUFOR, FOX TERRIER TF, KFOR, ISAF).

In addition the 5th company of the 451th military police battalion and the Murnau medical unit are stationed in the Werdenfelser barracks.

[citation needed] In 2001 the new health resort park (Kurpark), the Münter-Platz and the new Staffelsee high school were inaugurated.

Since 9 December 2008, the assembly hall of the Staffelsee high school bears the name of the writer Ödön von Horvath.

Ödön von Horvath spent a large part of his youth and young adulthood there and based some of his most well-known works (e.g. Jugend ohne Gott, Italienische Nacht) on happenings during the Third Reich in Murnau.

Christoph Probst, executed by the Gestapo for being a member of the White Rose resistance group during the Third Reich, was born in Murnau.