Discover the Upper Harz

The Upper Harz brings together themes of landscape and mining history. The historic Upper Harz Water Management System, trails with information boards and guided experiences at the Ottiliae Shaft offer different ways to explore the World Heritage Site. For planning your trip, it is also important to distinguish between them: Clausthal-Zellerfeld has its own specific cultural attractions, including a museum and a town walk. You can first decide whether you would rather explore the landscape and water engineering, learn more about mining history or plan around a specific date.

Water management and World Heritage hiking trails

The UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Upper Harz Water Management System comprises 107 historic ponds, a total of 310 kilometres of ditches and 31 kilometres of watercourses. The figures refer to different components: 107 is the number of ponds, while the two distances separately indicate the ditches and watercourses. This gives you a sense of the system’s scale by looking at its individual elements.

The World Heritage hiking trails in the Upper Harz pass through a landscape of ponds, ditches, mountain meadows, forests and diverse wildlife. Information boards provide insights into the World Heritage Site. This lets you combine time spent exploring the landscape with explanations of its historic water management, rather than viewing the trails merely as a natural backdrop.

Mining history and technical landmarks

The iron headframe of the Ottiliae Shaft dates from 1876 and is the oldest surviving structure of its kind in Europe. A guided experience begins at the Ottiliae Shaft World Heritage Monument in the Upper Harz. It includes a tour of the site of the former central extraction shaft, as well as machinery demonstrations. The headframe is a distinctive architectural feature; the tour also takes in the site and the machinery.

Clausthal-Zellerfeld: museum and local history

Founded in 1892, the Upper Harz Mining Museum in Clausthal-Zellerfeld traces the development of Upper Harz ore mining from the Middle Ages until its end in 1930. At the visitor mine, you can walk through the above-ground and underground facilities. You can also experience mining history at first hand by visiting a reconstructed mine shaft. The museum’s historical scope spans several centuries; the headframe at the Ottiliae Shaft, by contrast, is a specific structure dating from 1876.

The Kaiser Wilhelm II Shaft site in Clausthal-Zellerfeld is freely accessible and has an exhibition on the technology and history of the Upper Harz Water Management System. Its focus differs from that of the Mining Museum, which presents the development of ore mining. The Church of the Holy Spirit in Clausthal-Zellerfeld is Germany’s largest wooden church. The World Heritage Information Centre there has around 170 square metres of exhibition space and features a 3D landscape model with video projection.

The Robert Koch town walk in Clausthal-Zellerfeld leads to places associated with his youth. Stops include his birthplace, the church where he was baptised and his former school. The walk takes about 2.5 hours without a visit to the Upper Harz Mining Museum. If you plan to visit both, allow extra time for the museum; it is not included in the walk’s approximate duration.

At the BRAUakademie in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, groups of four or more can brew their own beer in seminars under the guidance of master brewers. The minimum group size is a useful detail when planning an activity together. This hands-on experience differs from the tours and town walk: here, the group does the brewing itself.

Early summer events

The UNESCO World Heritage Day in the Upper Harz takes place annually in early June and features special guided tours and a wide range of events. If you are planning your trip around this date, check the exact event dates before making plans.

Discover more destinations: Schulenberg in the Upper Harz, Wildemann, Altenau, Bad Harzburg, Sankt Andreasberg, Seesen, Altenau, Liebenburg

Go to the main travel overview: Goslar.