Top 6 Caves around Schwarzenbach an der Saale

According to legend, the Querkela lived in the Quarkloch. To this day, it is not clear whether the Quarkloch is a crevice in the rock or the beginning of a mining tunnel. The entrance is still clearly visible, but after five meters the cave is blocked by rubble and earth. There have been repeated attempts to uncover the cave, but this has not happened to date. The Quarkloch has managed to preserve its mystical existence.

The quark hole is located vertically above the information board. The path zigzags upwards. The 50 m sign has fallen off at the bend. Go left there.

The Quarklock is vertically above the information board. The path zigzags upwards. The 50 m sign has fallen off at the bend. Go left there.

Insight is not possible because a massive door obstructs the view. A gate would be more interesting.

Theresienstein Park is located in the north-east of the inner city of Hof an der Saale in Bavaria. Its history dates back to 1816, making the Theresienstein one of the oldest public parks in Germany. The park is named after Queen Therese Charlotte, the wife of the Bavarian King Ludwig I. From 1861 to 1899, the Hof city councilor Johann Gottlob Thomas had a significant influence on the design. The park was included in the Bavarian state garden show in Hof in 1994. In 2003 the Theresienstein was awarded the title of Germany's most beautiful park. Source and more info https://www.parks-und-gaerten.de/buergerpark-theresienstein/

600 years ago, adventurers of fortune laboriously dug their way into the mountain more than 30 meters deep in search of hidden treasures. It was of no use to them. It is true that grains of gold were actually found in the nearby Saale. But the Untreubach, which flows into the Saale, transported them from far away. The greywacke and argillaceous shale here in and around the adit are completely deaf (meaning worthless in miners' slang). However, the drudgery was not entirely in vain: for centuries, the tunnel was used as a refrigerator for food. The tunnel is now a stop on the geopath. Actually, it can only mean one thing when a tunnel has been driven into the mountain: the hope of wealth! Because digging a cave in the hard rock is infinitely difficult. 600 years ago there were no steam engines. The cavity was created by hand using only picks, hammers and chisels. A feudal deed (a deed of ownership) from 1472 for a mine on the Saale, including search tunnels for gold, silver and copper, has been preserved in the Hof city archive. Perhaps you are standing at this search tunnel? Deep in the mountain, the end of the tunnel branches out again into two side branches before the miners have given up digging. The side branches show how low and narrow the tunnel was originally (left: 1.80 m tall adult; right: our Hofer gnome, 6-year-old Elisabeth, 1.15 m tall). The tunnel was later extended to store groceries in the cool room.

In the meantime, the Querkala has been painted in bright colors. There are some pictures of the quarry next door in the gallery, which is wrong.

The Cellar Hill and a Cellar Hollow contain several 19th-century rock cellars. The earth and rock cellars are important ecological structural elements of nature conservation, but also symbols of local building tradition and stonemasonry. In addition, as artificially created caves, they bear witness to the geological conditions in the rocky landscape of the Fichtelgebirge. Rock cellars were of great importance for storing food, such as potatoes. They are mostly abandoned, partly dilapidated monuments of the agricultural landscape. Barely used cellars are well-known habitats for animals (winter quarters of bats) and small biotopes in near-natural surroundings.