Nördlingen Market Square – Hesselberg South Side loop from Rühlingstetten

Nördlingen Market Square – Hesselberg South Side loop from Rühlingstetten

Hard

riders

Nördlingen Market Square – Hesselberg South Side loop from Rühlingstetten

04:47

74.7km

630m

Gravel riding

Hard gravel ride. Very good fitness required. You may need to push your bike for some segments of this route. The starting point of the route is accessible with public transport.

Last updated: September 10, 2026

Tips

Includes a segment in which cycling is not permitted

After 59.9 km for 60 m

Waypoints

Start point

Train Station

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22.8 km

Nördlingen Town Hall

Highlight • Monument

The "Stone House of Nördlingen" has been the city's town hall for over 600 years. A special feature is the open staircase made of suevite ashlar, added later in 1618 by Wolfgang Walberger – a building of significant cultural and historical importance.

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22.9 km

Nördlingen Market Square

Highlight • Settlement

Nördlingen is a beautiful town with many old buildings.

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38.0 km

Königstor (Oettingen Town Gate)

Highlight • Monument

The tower of the lower gate, the so-called King's Tower, is the only one of the city fortifications that has been preserved.

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57.5 km

Hesselberg South Side

Highlight • Viewpoint

200 million years ago, the Jura Sea stretched from the North Sea basin to the far south and covered the old Keuperland. At that time the Hesselberg region was on the edge of this sea. Numerous tributaries brought huge rubble masses from the east of the mainland and formed a multi-layered landscape rich in animals and plants on the sea floor. Over the course of more than 40 million years, the various layers of the Jura rock were deposited one after the other: below that of the Black Jura (Lias), above that of the Brown Jura (Dogger) and as a top level that of the White Jura (Upper Jura or Malm). Each of these strata is characterized by the typical rock and the fossil specimens it contains, as well as its own period. Since some fossils only occur in certain rock layers, one speaks of guide fossils. The guiding fossils in the Jura rock are almost exclusively ammonites. The Jurassic Sea silted up completely in the course of the earth's history. In further millions of years, entire layers of rock were eroded. The protective depression of the Black Jurassic, in which the Hesselberg is located, is the reason why the Hesselberg could not be attacked by wind and water as strongly as the plain between the mountain and the Hahnenkamm. The hard rock was able to withstand and left the Hesselberg as a striking witness mountain, which today protrudes from the landscape like an island. This type of mountain formation is referred to in geology as a reversal of the relief.

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57.6 km

Hesselberg Ridge Trail and Viewpoint

Highlight • Trail

Great trail with a beautiful view

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58.4 km

Hesselberg Summit

Highlight • Summit

The Hesselberg with 689 meters is the highest elevation in Central Franconia. Up here you have fantastic views in good weather, which can reach into the Alps. There are many rare plants here, it is not for nothing that this is a nature reserve. Hiking is very popular around the mountain and there are good conditions for paragliding, hang gliding and gliding.

The road up here is unfortunately a dead end, but worth the climb. ;)

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58.6 km

Hesselberg Summit

Highlight • Summit

As a witness mountain (a single mountain in a layered landscape) of the Franconian Jura, the Hesselberg is geologically closely related to the Staffelberg (Lichtenfels district) or the Walberla (Forchheim district).

The Hesselberg also has a Nazi past, like so many other things. During the Nazi era, the Franconian Gauleiter Julius Streicher made the Hesselberg a political meeting place for the National Socialists. After the NSDAP came to power, party rallies developed into the Franconian Days, which were held annually until 1939. Alongside the Nuremberg Party Rallies, these were the largest Nazi rallies in Franconia, with up to 100,000 people in attendance. Evidence from this period can no longer be found on the Hesselberg today.

Since 1951, the Hesselberg has been in church hands and is, among other things, the venue for the Bavarian Evangelical Church Congress.

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