Crawinkel: Hiking, Pastureland and Local History

If you’re looking for a hotel for a trip to Crawinkel, you can plan your stay around the local highlights: hiking, open pastureland, air sports, and local history offer different ways to get to know the town. Excellent hiking conditions and a hang-gliding and paragliding school where you can give it a try make for an active trip. The Thüringeti, historical connections to churches, and activities related to millstone production add nature and culture to the mix. You can decide which of these highlights you’d like to shape your stay in Crawinkel.

Hiking, Pastureland and Air Sports

Crawinkel offers excellent hiking conditions for visitors and active holidaymakers. The pastureland of Agrar Crawinkel enhances the network of trails around the holiday destination for hikers, mountain bikers, and horse riders. The Thüringeti is something different: an open pastureland for horses and cattle, distinguished by its great biodiversity. This brings together two distinct aspects of a stay: a network of trails for several groups of outdoor enthusiasts, and a landscape with grazing animals and abundant biodiversity.

Air sports are another option: a hang-gliding and paragliding school invites you to give it a try. You can enquire about tandem flights by paraglider or hang glider through members of the Luftsportverein Crawinkel. Check current availability with them before planning your visit around a flight. Agrar GmbH Crawinkel manages 2,300 hectares and also runs excursions and specialist tours for various groups. If you’re considering a tour, check the dates and access in advance.

Church History and Local Crafts

Crawinkel was referred to as a town in a charter issued by Landgrave Friedrich of Thuringia in 1360. Further historical periods can be distinguished at St. Mary’s Church: the founding of the Marienkapelle is believed to date to around the year 1000. In 1421, the chapel became Crawinkel’s first church; St. Mary’s Church has had its present form since 1758. This provides a timeline from the presumed early founding of the chapel, through the first church, to its present-day form.

Crawinkel’s local craft history includes instrument makers who were renowned far beyond Thuringia for the quality of their violins and zithers. The Crawinkel Millstone Carvers Museum features a special exhibition about the Compiègne salon car. Tours on millstone production are offered at the Old Mill; check dates and access before your visit. Local history, instrument making, and millstone craftsmanship each offer a distinct cultural perspective.

Culture and Hiking in the Wider Destination of Ohrdruf

In the wider destination of Ohrdruf, the Bach story offers a distinct cultural highlight. Johann Sebastian Bach spent five formative years there with his older brother, Johann Christoph Bach. The permanent exhibition at Ehrenstein Castle Museum explores Bach’s childhood and youth in Ohrdruf from 1695 to 1700; the Ohrdruf Bach Days and the Bach cycling experience route also draw on his time there. Other examples include the Tobiashammer, built around 1480 as an iron, wire, and sickle hammer mill, and the Walter Schütz Nature Park Trail. This 12-kilometer hiking trail, with an elevation gain of about 284 meters, starts at the Ohrdruf Nature Park Gate. These attractions make it possible to distinguish Crawinkel’s highlights from further cultural and hiking activities associated with Ohrdruf.

Discover more destinations: Mühlberg, Tonna, Hohenkirchen, Gamstädt, Waltershausen, Finsterbergen, Friedrichroda, Laucha

View the wider travel guide: Gotha.