Schenkenfelden: Fairytale Forest, Hiking Trails and Culture

Schenkenfelden offers a variety of ways to plan your stay: hiking trails, a distinctive watershed and places connected with the town’s history. If you’re looking for a hotel for a trip with excursions, you can decide whether to focus more on trails and scenery or on historic places.

Hiking trails around Schenkenfelden

The hiking trails around Schenkenfelden are marked in coordination with the neighboring municipalities. The Nordwaldkammweg, the European Long-Distance Path and the Stern Gartl Weg lead to Schenkenfelden. This means there are several named hiking trails that have the town as their destination; the trails around Schenkenfelden are also marked in coordination with the neighboring municipalities.

You can get the Mühlviertler Sterngartl hiking map free of charge during public service hours at the Schenkenfelden municipal office. Check availability before you arrive. A turnoff from the Fairytale Forest Trail leads to the summit cross on Hirtstein. This connects navigation along hiking trails with specific destinations such as the cross on Hirtstein.

Fairytale forest and scenery

The Fairytale Forest Trail is a forest path about 2 km long. The fairytale trail follows a leisurely circular route through varied woodland and features 11 groups of fairytale figures carved from wood, with more than 40 figures in total. There are playgrounds at the start and end of the route, as well as a fairytale pond. The forest path, figures and pond give the circular route its own distinct character among the hiking options.

Another distinctive feature of the landscape is the European watershed between the Kettenbach and Grasbach streams. The Kettenbach flows north into the Vltava. The Grasbach is a headwater stream of the Große Gusen, which lies in the Danube drainage basin; the Danube flows south. As a result, water flows north to the North Sea and south to the Black Sea. Comparing the two directions of flow makes the significance of the watershed clear.

Hirtstein is also a specific landmark: on the highest point of Thierberg stands an aluminum cross anchored with ropes. The turnoff from the Fairytale Forest Trail leads to the summit cross. This lets you connect a described hiking destination with a distinctive landscape feature, without confusing the trail with the watershed.

Local history and Gerstlhaus

The Peasants’ War Chapel commemorates a military encounter between imperial troops and local farmers on 30 August 1626. About 300 farmers died in the encounter. The date, the groups involved and the approximate number of casualties give the chapel a specific historical context.

The Gerstlhaus General Store Museum preserves a general store from the early 19th century and an Austro-Hungarian post office dating from 1869. The Biedermeier room in the Gerstlhaus also houses a fortepiano made by Anton Walter in 1814. The store, post office and instrument represent different objects and periods that may interest you as you explore the town’s history.

Further historical references can be found in the townscape: the Anton Schiesser memorial plaque marks the birthplace and parental home of the Austro-Hungarian Field Marshal Lieutenant Anton Schiesser, Edler von Reifegg. The Harrucker monument is a bust in a small square on the market square, at the start of Harruckerstraße, and invites visitors to linger. Alongside the chapel and museum, a monument and a memorial plaque thus offer different ways to explore history.

Hiking or local history?

You can easily distinguish between the main themes of your stay: the Fairytale Forest Trail and the watershed focus on nature and the landscape, while the Peasants’ War Chapel and Gerstlhaus add a historical accent. If you’re looking for a hotel, this selection can help you decide what kind of trip you want, without combining the different trails and places into a single excursion.

Discover more destinations: Gallneukirchen, Engerwitzdorf, Sankt Magdalena, Zwettl An Der Rodl, Reichenau Im Mühlkreis, Lichtenberg, Haibach Im Mühlkreis, Walding

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