Weißenbrunner Panoramaweg KC 54

We leave the "beer village in the Franconian Forest" out of town on Sandstraße towards the forest and climb quite steeply uphill past "Sandgrubensee" to "Baum". From here, we follow a fairly level path to the right through the forest. Occasional views accompany us. Then we walk along the edge of the forest at the lower edge of an extensive meadow slightly uphill to the road. We cross the road and walk on easily accessible paths, initially through the pine forest interspersed with deciduous trees. We then walk downhill through the meadows with charming views and finally along a farm track lined with trees and shrubs through Schulstraße to the center of Wötzelsdorf.

We walk along the through road towards Fischbach and then turn right into Auleite. As we walk uphill, we come across the main hiking trail "Fränkische Linie". We turn right along a path and walk through the forest to the heights. We reach a rest and viewing point on pleasant paths through a charming hedge landscape on the heights. We then follow a road downhill until we come to a farm track. It takes us left uphill to the heights. There we turn right and walk along beautiful meadow paths through beautiful fields, past rows of trees until we reach a road. We cross it and continue straight ahead on the cul-de-sac until we reach the hamlet of Kübelhof.

There we turn right off the road and follow a field path to the heights. Accompanied by impressive views, we follow the path downhill, through a small wood, across a road and finally on a field path downhill to Gössersdorf.

The roots of this settlement go back to Frankish times. The Protestant branch church of St. Ägidius (a choir tower church), built over an older core, was first mentioned in a document in 1398. It was renovated and rebuilt several times.

Opposite the children's playground, we leave the village on a farm track through the fields to the heights. It is important to pause here to look back and enjoy the beautiful view of the Franconian Line and the Franconian Forest heights. Walking downhill, we pass an old lime tree, enjoy the view of the Kirchleuser Platte and the surrounding countryside again and are soon in the church village of Kirchleus.

On the way, the impressive views on all sides make up for the hike on the farm track, which is only used for agricultural purposes.

The townscape of Kirchleus is dominated by the castle and the Protestant parish church of St. Maria Magdalena. The current church is probably the third on this site. A church is mentioned in documents as early as 1249. Today's late Gothic choir tower church was built between 1774 and 1776 on older, lateral foundations. The tower was given its current shape in 1772.

In the village, we cross the B 85 diagonally, bypass the Maria Magdalenen church on the right and walk in the previous main direction past old hedges into the Kirchleuser Knock nature reserve. At the top, you can enjoy the magnificent panoramic view of the large quarry, Weißenbrunn and Wildenberg and the Ochsenkopf and Schneeberg in the distance from a large carved wooden cross.

A detour (750 m one-way) to the left leads to the Samelstein, one of the oldest historical stones in Germany, and then up the road to the Kirchleuser Rains.

Our circular trail, however, continues straight ahead and then turns right to the Kirchleuser Platte and the Frankenweg and Burgenweg trails. Following their markings, we hike along the 3 km long and 1.8 km wide, almost flat Kirchleuser Platte (also known as Kirchleuser Rain), which is made of white Jura and offers changing but always very beautiful views. When we reach the tarred road, we turn right and walk with a view to the right of the extensive Kirchleuser quarry up to the old pear tree.

We bypass the ancient tree to the left, slightly uphill towards the forest, and pass another (disused) Kirchleuser quarry. We then follow pleasant forest paths until we come out of the forest - with beautiful views - in the open downhill to just before the hamlet of Holzhaus. We once again enjoy a wonderful view of the picturesque surroundings with Schlottermühlbach valley and parts of Weißenbrunn until we are once again surrounded by sparse high forest. We walk down the slope of the Geiersberg (485 m) on paths and natural forest trails until we soon reach the beginning of our starting point again near the single Hohenwart with a beautiful view of Weißenbrunn.