Bächleiner Weg KC 33

After starting at the parking lot at the moated castle, the route leads to the Jakobskirche church, the upper castle and along Burgstaller Weg out of town to the road (view of Mupperg, the Steinachtal valley and the southern Thuringian Forest in the background). We continue along the road to the right to the Häubleins pond. There we turn right onto a beautiful forest path and follow it uphill to a forest road. While the Häusles path leads straight ahead uphill to Häusles, we turn left and follow the forest path downhill to the road.

Now we turn right for a few meters and immediately left again into the forest and on beautiful paths in a forest covered with pine trees to Neubau, our next destination. Due to the construction of a new road, we first have to walk along the track parallel to the road to the left, then cross the road and walk along the cul-de-sac to Neubau. There we notice the forester's lodge, a half-timbered building from the 17th/18th century.

We enter the forest again and soon walk straight ahead between the Upper and Lower Mill Ponds, which are protected landscape conservation areas. Only after a bend do we turn right off the previous path. We continue walking and arrive at the Waldhotel Bächlein, surrounded by woods and close to the Thuringian border. Our hiking trail leads past the Waldhotel through the small village to the road on the left. At the last house, we turn right onto a forest path and continue straight ahead until we come to the Reginasee lake, which is quite deep at the dam, and the Pfadensee lake. A detour to the middle of the dam on the lake named after Baroness Regina von Cramer-Klett is worthwhile. Because aristocratic lords of the von Würtzburg family used to bathe here at the edge of Lake Regina, access was closed to the "people".

When we step out of the silence of the vast pine forests into the open, we come to the Gampert pond and enjoy the view of Neundorf, the Mitwitzer Berg, the Hassenberg (with Hassenberg Castle) and Spitzberg (from left). In the past, this pond was not only important for its fish. Until the introduction of electricity, in the days before "ice machines", ice was extracted in winter and used by Frankenbräu Neundorf to cool and store the beer deep underground in the rock cellars. Wherever the brewing right was exercised, rock cellars had to be built to store the beer. This was done using the ice from other ponds in the cellars of the local pubs on Mitwitzer Berg. Such former, larger "refrigerators" are still preserved, for example in the Schafhof near Schauenstein, near Schnappenhammer and near Hölle. However, only the large historic cellar complex in Bad Lobenstein in Thuringia is still accessible and used for tourism.

With a view of the charming Föritz valley and the houses of Neundorf, we soon reach the northern edge of Neundorf. We cross the road in a straight line and continue along the left edge of the Föritz valley. It has its source in the area between Föritz and Mönchsberg. We continue walking with a view of (from left) Mitwitzer Berg, Kostberg, Weinberg and Hassenberg.

We should not miss the few meters to the right downhill to the rock cellar from 1835. Even if we can only see into the anteroom, we can imagine that it is around 150 m long with its side corridors. Long "floors" for the beer barrels are carved into the sandstone walls. The former cellars around Mitwitz are now important winter quarters for bats.

We cross the Föritz and the valley on a driveway into the elongated street village of Neundorf. It was once located on an important road that led from the Main valley to Thuringia. We continue along the Burgenweg to the left to the end of the sidewalk and then on a footpath to the beginning of Mitwitz and on to the large parking lot at the moated castle, a four-winged building in the middle of an extensive park.

Just before Mitwitz, on Mitwitzer Berg by the road at a small parking lot, you can't miss a natural grotto in a rock face on our hike, in which an almost life-size stone lion rests. The monument, erected in 1907, commemorates Baroness Annie von Würtzburg, née Lyons (lion). The distinguished family had a lion in their coat of arms and their father was commander-in-chief of the English fleet. The location is significant in two respects: In June 1842, the baroness and her husband Philipp von Würtzburg were greeted by the family, local councillors and schoolchildren (on the rock: "Welcome!") when they visited Germany and Mitwitz below that spot. - In 1894, the body of the baroness who died in Bamberg was received by the family and "representatives" in the same place in the same month before being taken to her grave in the Mitwitz cemetery.
The Stone Lion was erected in 1907. The short detour from the parking lot is well worth it!