Lichtenfels: Old Town and Basketry Tradition

The basket market, the preserved town gates and the Basketry Culture Trail show different sides of Lichtenfels’ basketry tradition. The destination also offers municipal collections and natural landscapes. This means you can consider cultural history, an annual event and nature experiences as distinct highlights for your trip.

Old Town and Basketry Tradition

Lichtenfels’ old town has preserved its typically Franconian character. The Bamberg Gate and Kronach Gate remain, and parts of the old town wall are still visible. The gates and remnants of the wall provide striking historical landmarks in the old town.

The Lichtenfels Basket Market takes place every year on the third weekend in September. You can combine this fixed date with a visit to the old town when planning your trip. The Lichtenfels City Palace houses municipal collections on the history of beer and brewing, the railway and the basket trade. These additional topics complement the basketry tradition, which can also be encountered at other places in the destination. Exhibition content may change.

The Basketry Culture Trail

The 14-kilometre Basketry Culture Trail is a scenic circular route linking Lichtenfels and Michelau along nature trails through the Main floodplains. Its 23 information boards cover the history and tradition of basket-making, the basket industry and the basket trade along the Upper Main. The trail explores the subject not only through collections, but also through its information boards along the route.

The listed woven-art installations include a willow labyrinth for children near Oberwallenstadt and a willow shell at the river lido. They also include a woven tipi at Ortswiesensee Oberwallenstadt and other woven-art installations. These stops complement information about the craft tradition with concrete examples of woven forms.

Thermal Baths, Monastery and Landscape

In Bad Staffelstein, the Obermain Thermal Baths offer Bavaria’s warmest and most highly concentrated thermal brine. Public guided tours take place several times a week at Banz Abbey. Check the dates before your trip if you would like to plan a tour.

Near Bad Staffelstein, Staffelberg rises 539 metres above sea level, 290 metres above the Main Valley. Its summit lies in a nature reserve and may not be accessed by car or bicycle. This restriction is important to bear in mind when planning a visit.

The Kleinziegenfeld Valley is about 12 kilometres long and is mostly protected as a nature reserve. Its distinctive rock formations, clear streams, mills and half-timbered villages are complemented by characteristic juniper heaths with dry and semi-dry grassland slopes. The valley therefore offers a landscape that differs from the Main floodplains along the Basketry Culture Trail.

At the small excavation site by the “Waldfrieden” hiking car park, you can look for fossils and split them open. Hammers and safety goggles can be borrowed from the Weismain Environmental Station. Check before your trip whether the equipment you need is available.

Discover more destinations

Discover more destinations: Lichtenfels, Ebensfeld, Bad Staffelstein, Burgkunstadt, Michelau In Oberfranken, Altenkunstadt, Hochstadt am Main, Marktgraitz, Marktzeuln, Weismain, Redwitz an der Rodach, Hochstadt-Marktzeuln.

See the overview of the wider region: Bavaria.