Hollfeld: Upper Town, Guided Tours and Gardens

Upper Town and St. Gangolf

To this day, Hollfeld’s Upper Town, with Marienplatz, retains the early medieval character of a burgher and hilltop town, as well as the layout of a spur settlement. Anyone interested in the town’s development over time will find a good starting point here for discovering Hollfeld’s historical character.

Another striking building is the late medieval fortified tower of St. Gangolf. It is attached to the former church, which is now used as a cultural centre. The tower contains an old tower keeper’s apartment and a viewing platform. This place brings together defensive architecture, former ecclesiastical use and present-day cultural use.

Guided Town Tours and a Walking Tour Flyer

If you would like to learn more about the town’s history, individual guided tours led by knowledgeable, experienced guides are offered in Hollfeld throughout the year. This gives you the option of making a guided tour a focus of your stay, rather than limiting your visit to individual buildings.

To help you prepare, there is a free flyer, “A Walk through the Historic Old Town of Hollfeld.” It contains information and pictures of the buildings and is available from the tourist information office. The flyer is a handy resource for anyone who wants to learn about the buildings in advance or use the information to enrich their impressions during a visit.

A garden tour is another option in Hollfeld: a botanist explains the plant life. The tour lasts about 45 minutes and is often combined with a town tour. If you would like to include both topics in your itinerary, you can plan the botanical tour as a separate activity.

Terraced Gardens and Seasonal Plants

The terraced gardens lie on the steep southern slope below the town wall. Plants adapted to a hot, dry climate grow there. These include hardy figs and cacti, native orchids and the rare rock alyssum. The range brings together plants you might not expect to find in an ordinary garden with native species.

The gardens look different at different times of year: roses and their companion plants are in full bloom in June and July. The plants present may vary depending on the season and garden maintenance; if you would like to see particular plants, take this seasonal feature into account when planning your visit.

Nature Activities in the Kainach Valley

The children’s adventure trail in the Kainach Valley offers a different way to explore nature. Information boards cover flora and fauna; the activity stations include a barefoot path, musical wooden chimes and tree trunks to climb. On the return leg of the circular trail, there is an animal enclosure with goats beside the path. The trail’s themes are therefore quite different from the plants and seasonal blooms in the terraced gardens.

When to Visit and Finding Accommodation

June falls within both the months of the pilgrimages to the Church of the Holy Saviour and the period when the roses in the terraced gardens are in full bloom. Pilgrimages to Hollfeld’s Church of the Holy Saviour take place in May and June; they are the only pilgrimages dedicated to the Holy Saviour in the Archdiocese of Bamberg. The roses and their companion plants bloom from June into July. If you choose your travel dates with this in mind, remember that these are seasonal periods, not dates for specific events.

For comparison with other towns, you can also consider the destinations of Plankenfels, Aufseß, Bad Berneck im Fichtelgebirge, Warmensteinach, Goldkronach, Weidenberg, Pegnitz and Bischofsgrün.

For the wider travel overview: Bayreuth.