Mühlenweg Schwabsoien

Exciting hiking trail along the Schönach, past working mills and historic hammer mills. Several mills can be visited on Mill Day (Whit Monday). Information and guided tours are available from the municipality of Schwabsoien on 08868-231

The starting point of the walk is the maypole in the center of the village. The 33-metre-high tree is a striking landmark in the center of the village. From there, the route follows the "Mühlenweg" signposts towards Schwabbruck and back past mills and forges. There is a mill store at the Schmidfranzer in the Pröbstlmühle. The Keller mill is a historic grinding mill. The trail continues to a sawmill, the Weißhammer or weapon smithy and the pump house, where water was pumped from the Schönach springs into a water reserve.

Path description:

The path leads past the following historic mills:

• Beim Schmidfranzer:
  The hammer mill "Beim Schmiedfranzer" once stood on the grounds of the Pröbstl family at Füssener Straße 4 (former house number 45 1/2).
  Today, the family runs a mill store here
• Keller-Mühle:
  The grinding mill of Wilhelm Keller is located at Kaufbeurerstraße 8 (former house no. 39). According to the village chronicle, the history of the property dates back to 1517. There used to be a sawmill next to the grist mill.
• Beim Schmidjörgler
  The original hammer mill was completely destroyed in the village fire of 1823. After it was rebuilt, it was converted into a sawmill in 1894.
• The Schwabsoier chronicle shows that the Weißhammer or weapon forge can be traced back to 1806.
• Beim Lazar:
  The forge, first mentioned in 1415, originally belonged to the St. Mang monastery in Füssen. According to earlier standards, it was a large operation in which iron was smelted and processed.
• Pump house:
  In 1909, the municipality of Sachsenried bought a water right to drive a pumping station. A pump was driven by means of a water wheel, which pumped the water extracted from the Schönachnach springs to Sachsenried into a water reserve.

Hiking map Pfaffenwinkel, scale 1:40,000, HW-Verlag, nominal fee 1 EUR, available from the Pfaffenwinkel Tourist Office, www.pfaffen-winkel.de