Discover Jena: Botanical Garden, City Forest and Kulturarena

Jena brings together botanical collections, hiking trails with varied profiles and an annual summer festival. This gives you a choice of focal points when planning your trip: the Botanical Garden showcases plant diversity, the City Forest has a short circular trail with nature stations, and the SaaleHorizontale offers a much longer hiking route. The Kulturarena adds a summer event to these nature-focused attractions. You can use whichever of these appeals to you as a starting point for planning your stay.

Botanical diversity in the garden

The Botanical Garden of the University of Jena covers 4.5 hectares and is home to around 10,000 plant species. It has five greenhouses: the Succulent House, the Cold House, the Tropical House, the Evolution House and the Victoria House. Water lilies, among other plants, grow there. Its size, diversity of species and greenhouses make the garden a destination in its own right for anyone planning to explore botanical attractions in Jena.

Hiking trails with varied profiles

The WaldPfad Schlauer Ux is a circular trail of about four kilometres with little elevation gain. It runs through the Jena City Forest and starts near the forum natura nature experience centre. The route passes the Forstturm and the Bismarckturm, as well as the Sternlinde. At 20 stations, children and other hikers can discover animals, trees and plants. The trail is suitable for families, kindergarten groups and school classes. The stations give the loop a clear focus on nature and highlight different discovery themes along the way.

The 91-kilometre SaaleHorizontale is on an entirely different scale. It follows narrow paths along steep shell-limestone slopes and offers spectacular views of the landscape of the Middle Saale Valley, with its villages, castles and palaces. In Jena, it is considered an outstanding outdoor attraction. Compared with the WaldPfad, which is about four kilometres long and has little elevation gain, the two trails differ considerably in length and terrain: one is a short loop with 20 stations, the other a long route over steep slopes. This makes route length and terrain useful criteria when choosing between the two hiking profiles.

Summer Kulturarena

Since 1992, the Kulturarena has been a popular summer attraction every year, drawing tens of thousands of visitors. As a recurring summer event, it may influence your choice of travel dates. If you would like to plan your stay around the Kulturarena, check the dates for that year's event in advance.

Cultural attractions in the wider Saale-Holzland destination

In the wider Saale-Holzland destination, the Dornburg Palaces form an ensemble of three palaces from different stylistic periods. The Bauhaus Workshop Museum in Dornburg is located in the Marstall building within the Dornburg Palace complex, in the former Bauhaus ceramics workshop. The palace ensemble and the former workshop represent different cultural and historical themes.

The Bürgel Ceramics Museum traces the history of Bürgel's pottery in its permanent exhibition, from its beginnings in the mid-17th century to the present day. An audio guide leads visitors to 22 stops in Bürgel and Thalbürgel; check its availability before your trip. The region's cultural attractions can thus also be distinguished by their focus: palace architecture and Bauhaus history in Dornburg, pottery and audio-guide stops in Bürgel and Thalbürgel.

Discover more destinations: Eisenberg, Gösen, Weißbach, Großbockedra, Bürgel, Zöllnitz, Tröbnitz, Mörsdorf.

See the wider travel overview: Saale-Holzland.