The best road cycling routes around Hienheimer Forst

Essing is a small, nice market town. You can well imagine what it looked like before the big canal was built.

Hexenagger Castle A Dietricus von Haecsenakker is mentioned as early as 928 in a Regensburg document from the St. Emmeram Monastery; further information is scarce. In 1311, Gottfried Hexenacker became Bishop of Freising. He had studied in Bologna and served as dean of the cathedral there for many years. In 1314, he died of an infectious disease while on a tour of inspection in Vienna. In 1485, the castle passed through marriage to the Counts of Helfenstein, who sold the fortress to Duke William of Bavaria in 1528. He gave Hexenagger to the Muggenthal family as a fief. When the castle was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War, the Muggenthal family rebuilt it as a castle. In 1724, the castle was sold to the Bavarian Elector Charles Albert, as the Hexenagger line of the Muggenthal family had died out. In 1731, Elector Karl Albrecht donated the castle to his mistress, Maria Josepha Countess von Morawitzky. Her husband received the castle in 1738, and when he died in 1754, Anton von Kaiserstein became the new owner. Franz Joseph III von Kaiserstein (1792–1893) sold the castle in 1830 and acquired an estate in Sooß (Lower Austria) in exchange. From 1830 to 1951, Hexenagger Castle belonged to the noble family of Weidenbach. Otto Edler von Weidenbach bequeathed it to his niece Ilse von Kalckreuth, who married Wilhelm Leichtfuß, whose son, Eberhard Leichtfuß, owns it today. Hexenagger is a castle between the Renaissance and Baroque periods, built on the foundations of the old castle. In the lower areas and at the corners, ashlars and bossed ashlars, up to several meters high, are still visible on the castle building. The stump of the keep, made of bossed ashlar, is also said to have been preserved, but is not visible from the outside. The defensive character of the complex is best appreciated from the rear, where parts of the curtain wall and wall towers have been preserved. The tall, narrow chapel also still hints at the castle in its form; particularly interesting is the slender, slightly leaning bell tower, which appears to still sit on the older foundations of the medieval chapel tower. The main building itself, with its stepped gable and beautiful garden, presents a romantic sight. The castle is privately owned and not open to the public; the popular Christmas market was relocated to the Wolfgangshof estate near Zirndorf in Middle Franconia in 2023 due to complaints from local residents. Source: www.Burgenseite.de / www.wikipedia.de

was nice!

Put it in a light gear and pedal up comfortably, observing the rocks to the right and left in the forest! Even if you don't want to continue through the forest, it's worth the climb and descent! I give it 6 out of 5 stars.

Beautiful little town. I always enjoy being there.

Not only does it have old town character, but also history.

With the impressive rock and Danube backdrop, it is really worth stopping here

Eichhofen Castle One of the special features of Bavarian country castles is the so-called hammer castles, which were built from the 16th to the 18th century, primarily in the Upper Palatinate, as representative residential buildings for hammer mill owners. Eichhofen Castle is one of these. Eichhofen Castle was built around 1560 by the influential Sauerzapf family as a late Gothic, rectangular and three-storey gabled building, with stepped gables facing north and south. There is a Romanesque chapel on the west side. In 1866, the property was redesigned in a neo-Gothic style, and the onion domes were probably removed. The eaves side building on a slope is characterized by a protruding tower on the northeast side and a bay window on the southeast side. Inside, the generous three-room layout from the time of construction has been preserved. The hallway on the ground floor is a vaulted corridor, with rooms on two sides. The late Gothic planked beam ceiling and the solid fittings from the 18th century have also been preserved. There is a pavilion from the 19th century in the garden. The castle was pretty much destroyed in the Thirty Years' War and rebuilt in the middle of the 16th century. The former iron hammer ceased operations in 1848 and the grain mills built by the Regensburg wholesaler Wilhelm von Neuffer have been idle since 1970. The Eichhofen Castle Brewery, however, which is run independently by the Schönharting family, can look back on a brewing tradition spanning more than 400 years. According to even older documents, the brewery is one of the oldest breweries in Bavaria, as the brewery was mentioned as early as the beginning of 1300. In recent years, the castle and the surrounding farm buildings have been extensively renovated. With the establishment of a workshop and exhibition space for artists on the upper floor of the former mill, Eichhofen also became a small, private cultural center that has been able to present a series of exhibitions to the public in recent years. The castle is listed in the Nittendorf community's monument list as a protected architectural monument and is now privately owned by the family of Dr. Günther and Ingeborg Schönharting. Source: Excerpts from www.wikipedia.de / Castles tell stories... - Book & Art Publishers Oberpfalz