Discover Wasserlosen: Wayside shrine trails, churches and history

When looking for a hotel in Wasserlosen, it helps to consider which themes you want to shape your stay: the Northern Route passes through Wasserlosen and Greßthal, the Catholic Church of St. Simon and Jude is in the village itself, and other cultural sites are located in districts of the municipality. This lets you consider Wasserlosen as a specific destination separately from topics across the municipality before choosing your focus.

The Northern Route and its extension

The Northern Route is about 51 km long and passes 67 wayside shrines; its circular route goes through Wasserlosen and Greßthal. Blue signs marked “Bildstockweg” point the way, and the route uses paved cycle paths almost throughout. The eastern additional loop offers a particularly clear comparison: it extends the Northern Route by 29 km and adds 42 more wayside shrines. This changes both the route length and the number of wayside shrines. If you include the route in your travel plans, you can weigh the extra distance against your interest in seeing more wayside shrines.

Church and parish history

The Catholic Church of St. Simon and Jude in Wasserlosen dates from the time of Julius Echter (1602). In Greßthal, a district of the municipality of Wasserlosen, the parish museum is housed in a Baroque rectory. Its historical library contains more than 400 specialist books for the clergy, mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries. An archaeology section introduces visitors to the region’s prehistory and early history; the museum also preserves the parish treasury, spanning more than 550 years of parish history. Alongside the church in the village itself, Greßthal therefore offers architecture, books, archaeology and church history as distinct historical perspectives.

Contemporary history and churches in the districts

Rütschenhausen offers a different historical focus: the German-American Postwar Museum displays hundreds of objects from the final phase of the Second World War and the subsequent postwar period; the exhibition covers more than 600 m². The pilgrimage church of Maria von der Tann is also in this district. The Church of St. Cyriacus in Schwemmelsbach was built to plans by Balthasar Neumann. This allows you to include contemporary history collections and different church-related themes in your choices across the municipality.

Hiking trail and favourite spot in Wülfershausen

The Kohlenbrennertour, a circular hiking trail, is in Wülfershausen. Also in this district, directly behind the Vierzehnheiligen Chapel, is the municipality of Wasserlosen’s quiet, idyllic favourite spot; a reclining bench stands there. For choosing a theme, a circular hiking trail and a named spot with a reclining bench offer two distinct local options.

Early settlement history in the Reichthal

The abandoned settlement of Höchstadt in the Reichthal near Wasserlosen was inhabited from the Neolithic period to the Middle Ages. This long span adds early settlement history to the themes of churches, parish history and the postwar period. If you plan your stay around your historical interests, this offers another perspective on the region.

Schweinfurt as a wider destination

The wider destination of Schweinfurt adds distinct nature and culture themes. Brönnhof was included in the National Natural Heritage on 13 January 2016; the former military training area covers 746 hectares and provides a habitat for protected species such as Bechstein’s bat and the great crested newt. The Franconian Wayside Shrine Centre in Egenhausen offers a different focus: across around 90 square metres, it presents a modern permanent exhibition on the cultural history of wayside shrines. The range of themes thus extends from natural heritage to wayside shrine culture, alongside the churches, museums and trails in Wasserlosen and the municipality.

Discover more destinations: Donnersdorf, Sulzheim, Euerbach, Grafenrheinfeld, Stadtlauringen, Sennfeld, Schwebheim, Poppenhausen

For the wider travel overview: Schweinfurt.