Discover Schongau

If you are looking for a hotel for a trip to Schongau, the focus of your stay can help shape your plans: local history, a longer hike and the landscape of Gitzitobel appeal to different interests. In Oberschongau, there is also a water-treading facility on the Erusbach and a barefoot trail. You can decide in advance whether history, a longer walk or nature should take priority in your travel plans.

Church and Roman traces

The old parish church of St. Mary and St. Ulrich is in Oberschongau and was first mentioned in 1063. Excavations at the church uncovered the remains of a Roman estate in 1951. The dates refer to different events: 1063 is the church’s first recorded mention, while 1951 is the year of the excavation. A first mention is not automatically a construction date. This distinction is useful for placing the history in context, since the information points to both an ecclesiastical record and an older Roman trace in Oberschongau.

Hiking the Chapel Trail

The Chapel Trail on Lindenberg starts in Schongau. The route is listed as requiring at least five hours of walking; visits and detours are not included. Treat this figure as walking time only, and allow extra time for stops or additional detours. This gives you a time frame for the route without confusing walking time with the total duration of the outing. If the Chapel Trail is the main focus of your visit, plan for it separately and do not include other activities in those five hours.

Nature in Gitzitobel

The Gitzitobel nature reserve combines wet and semi-dry meadows with various forest communities. It also features species-rich flower meadows, structurally diverse forest edges, spring-fed streams and beech trees with impressive trunk diameters. This mix of different habitats contributes to striking biodiversity, including around 20 orchid species. For nature enthusiasts, it is the combination that is particularly interesting: the landscape includes open meadows and forest, spring-fed streams and botanical diversity—not just one type of landscape.

Getting there and trails in Oberschongau

You can reach Schongau from Hitzkirch railway station by bus No. 7. Check the timetable before your trip. In Oberschongau, the water-treading facility on the Erusbach and the barefoot trail are on the hiking trail towards Bettwil. The walk there takes about 15 minutes. The bus connection and the walk are separate parts of your plans: bus No. 7 takes you from Hitzkirch railway station to Schongau; allow about 15 minutes for the walk to the two attractions. Count the walking time as a separate part of your day, and check the bus connection separately.

Comparing walking times

These details help you compare different activities: the Chapel Trail requires at least five hours of walking, not including visits and detours, while the walk to the water-treading facility and barefoot trail takes about 15 minutes. This makes it easier to distinguish a longer hike from a short walk to the two attractions.

Discover more destinations: Römerswil, Emmen, Gelfingen, Hämikon, Hohenrain, Rothenburg, Ballwil, Rain.

Go to the regional travel overview: Hochdorf.