Eberbach: Old Town, Castle Ruins and Trails

In Eberbach, you can shape your stay around several specific themes: historic buildings and the town wall, the three-part castle ruins, a nature exhibition, or routes for walks and bike rides.

Town history among towers and half-timbered houses

The Rosenturm at the northeastern corner of Eberbach’s old town is the oldest of its four corner towers. It was built in the 13th century along with the town wall. The imposing Bad or Haspelturm stands at Lindenplatz and dates from the 14th century. At its base is a lightless underground chamber into which prisoners could once be lowered using a winch.

The courtyard with the Bettendorf Gate dates from 1470 and may be Eberbach’s oldest fully preserved half-timbered building. The Thalheim House was first mentioned in 1421. It was once the seat of the Electoral Palatinate official in charge of the cellars, later a princely Leiningen hunting lodge, and then the town hall; today it houses the information center for the Neckartal-Odenwald Nature Park.

A guided walk through the historic town center offers an informative account of its history, from the town’s founding, dated to 1227, to its historic buildings, half-timbered houses and niches. If you are planning a guided tour, check the current dates in advance. Another historical detail can be found at the Old Market: a sgraffito on the front of the “Karpfen” hotel depicts the town’s history in 14 images. Eberbach artist Richard Hemberger created it in 1934.

Castle ruins, Ohrsberg and town forest

The Eberbach castle ruins comprise three separate complexes: Vorderburg, Mittelburg and Hinterburg. They stand on a strategically located spur of land. The Ohrsberg Tower stands on Ohrsberg, right in the center of Eberbach. The tower is 17.50 meters high; the remains of a historic ring ditch can still be seen at the summit.

A tree is also associated with a specific measurement: a Douglas fir in the Eberbach town forest was measured at 64.77 meters during an official survey on December 14, 2018, and is considered the tallest tree in the Odenwald.

Nature park, Neckar and tours

The Nature Park Center in Eberbach has 280 square meters of exhibition space. The visitor exhibition offers a glimpse of orchards, beech forests, the region’s flora and fauna, and the relationship between people and nature. It offers a way to add a natural history perspective to your stay.

The Eberbach riverside promenade runs from the mouth of the Itter through the Neckar gardens, along the town wall to the Blauer Hut. The medicinal herb garden is a stop on the urban ecology trail and the wild garlic trail. It lies right beside the cycling and hiking path from Eberbach to Hirschhorn.

The Eberbach River History Trail is a circular route about ten kilometers long, with 15 information panels on the geological and river history of the Neckar. It climbs to the cultural landscape on Breitenstein, where you can see loop-shaped hills formed by former bends in the Neckar and former valley floors of the Neckar.

For mountain biking, BIKELÄND has twelve legal, hand-built natural singletrack trails of all difficulty levels, with more than ten kilometers of trail in total. Four trail centers can be reached from the market square. This is distinct from the approximately 35-kilometer mountain bike loop, which starts and ends at Eberbach station. The distances refer to two different types of route: about ten kilometers for the River History Trail and about 35 kilometers for the mountain bike loop. Check the current route details before your mountain bike tour, as they may change.

Discover more destinations: Lobbach, Meckesheim, Neckarbischofsheim, Gaiberg, Walldorf, Schwetzingen, Reichartshausen, Angelbachtal

Go to the main travel overview: Rhein-Neckar District.