Dorfbachrunde 6

The starting point is at the Oberdorf information office. We walk in the direction of the outdoor swimming pool into the Oberndorf forest park. The first turn to the right leads us to the mountain chapel, past slagheaps from past mining eras, where the deepest shaft in the world was once dug (1597). Around 1600, the so-called Heiliggeistschacht was already 887 metres deep and employed 1700 miners. Mining was the most important industry in the 16th/17th centuries. Worth seeing is the miners' chapel, dedicated to St. Nepomuk (normally the patron saint of sailors; the miners prayed to him to be spared from dangerous water inrushes in the tunnels). The chapel was built in 1732 in the Baroque style and is decorated with beautiful frescoes by Simon Benedikt Faistenberger. The great conductor Herbert von Karajan was quietly married here. We cross the Rerobichlstraße, hike slightly uphill straight ahead to the Riederbauern and once again gaze in wonder at the magnificent panorama of the Wilder Kaiser. Continue through the hilly landscape towards Buchbergbauer. A meadow path leads to the Dorfbachweg on the right. This takes us past the stallion stable to Oberndorf centre.