Birkenhainer Straße

This legendary trade route was already used in the early Stone Age, as prehistoric finds along the route prove, and has been an important trade route ever since - which also inspired generations of Spessart robbers to commit new atrocities.

But fear not. Today, the Birkenhainer Straße is a peaceful and popular hiking trail with few inclines, which always runs along the ridges of the northern Spessart. Only the sound of the deep forests may cause some hikers to daydream and recall spooky robber stories.

In the Middle Ages, the Birkenhainer Straße was an important military and trade route and link between Rhine Franconia and East Franconia. The Franconian and Hohenstaufen emperors rode along it to the palaces of Karlsburg and Salzburg, among others. The route runs from Hanau (Neuwirtshaus) through the Spessart past meeting places of former important personalities such as Savigny, Clemens Brentano and the Brothers Grimm to Gemünden a. Main. From the Roman fort in Hanau/Großauheim across meadows and fields up to Franzosenkopf, you reach the wooded ridges of the Vorspessart.

The trail then runs along the pronounced Bavarian-Hessian border ridge to the Wiesbüttsee lake. The Wiesbüttsee with its adjacent Wiesbüttmoor nature reserve and its rare raised bog flora, the Bayrische Schanz, once a customs house on the Bavarian-Prussian border and other witnesses to the past line the route through the beautiful Spessart forests. Past Zollberg, with its views of the Main, Sinn and Saale rivers, you reach the former ford and fishing settlement of Gemünden a. Main.