The best MTB trails around Dörfles-Esbach

The entire route along the Querkelsteig trail is very easy and interesting for everyone to walk.

I can only recommend the few meters, they are extremely photogenic.

A beautifully preserved fortification with a beautiful path alongside is an ideal place to take a break.

During the Third Reich, the castle was initially used by the Reichspost (Reich Postal Service) as a postal convalescent home from 1941 onward. After the Second World War, the German Federal Postal Service leased it to Caritas, which operated a retirement home. In 1976, the Postal Service sold the property to Munich entrepreneur Oskar Hacker, who had the castle restored between 1987 and 1993 to use it as a hotel and restaurant. Following Oskar Hacker's death in 2016, the castle has been owned by the non-profit Oskar Hacker Foundation, which has its headquarters in the castle. The foundation operates the Oskar Hacker Art Forum, which, among other things, has erected the permanent exhibition "Glaskunst im Schlosspark" by Borowski and a White Cube by photographer Mike Meyer in the park since 2024. The hotel and upscale restaurants are leased. Source: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Hohenstein_(Oberfranken)

Today's Hohenstein Castle was first documented in 1306 as "Castum Hohenstein in dem Grabfelde," or "castle." Countess Jutta von Henneberg was listed as its owner. Over the next 150 years, the hilltop castle changed hands several times until Duke William of Saxony, who granted the castle "zu dem Hohen Steyn" as a fief to the brothers Hans and Thomas von Lichtenstein. In 1466, the Bamberg vassals Kunz von Aufseß and Kunz von Streitberg, whose ancestral castles were located in Franconian Switzerland, devastated the castle. Both knights, along with their brother Kunz Ochs, who was also involved, were soon sentenced by the Coburg City Court to compensate for the damage caused and to pay 4,000 guilders to the Coburg rulers for breach of the peace. Source: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Hohenstein_(Oberfranken)

The rock formation owes its name to a legend. The Querkel stones in the Hohenstein Forest still remind us of the Querkels today. These little people rarely came to the villages. Only when the ground was frozen solid and they couldn't dig for ore did they come and help the farmers with threshing. In return, they received a few small pieces of bread as gifts. The gold and silver they dug in large quantities from the mountains were carefully hidden from the farmers' view in their caves. Once, when a farmer from Stöppach, a village near Hohenstein, beat the dwarves because they had cut off a small portion of his bread and meat during his absence, they never came to the villages again. From that day on, the dwarf people disappeared forever from human sight, and the Querkel caves stood empty. Source: https://www.untersiemau.de/freizeit-kultur/siemauer-sagenwelten/querkelsteig/querkelsage/

Very nice ambiance. You'll have to check the beer garden's opening hours online!

The farm, with its fortified structure, was built on a medieval trade route from the Main Valley to Erfurt and a former ford over the Röden River. Over the centuries, the fortified structure developed into a moated castle and eventually a palace. Owners from the 14th century onward included the Coburg family, who, in 1451, sold the property to the mint masters of Rosenau. In 1600, the castle and estate were acquired by Duke Johann Casimir for 28,000 guilders and transferred to the princely chamber of Coburg as a domain.