STAFFELBERG

The Staffelberg is a 539-metre outlier hill in Upper Franconia, on the north-western edge of the Franconian Switzerland and only a stone's throw from Bad Staffelstein. It owes its name to its shape: the flanks rise in clearly visible steps – the "Staffeln" – in which the layers of Jurassic rock show through.

From the plateau the view reaches across the Upper Main Valley, over to Banz Abbey and, on a clear day, as far as the Haßberge and the Rhön. Together with Banz and the Basilica of Vierzehnheiligen the Staffelberg forms the "trio" in the Gottesgarten, the "Garden of God"; the Frankenlied, the Franconian anthem, sings of the view from up here.

The high plateau has been inhabited for over 7,000 years. From about 150 to 50 BC the Celtic oppidum Menosgada stood here, known from the Greek geographer Ptolemy. Excavations between 2017 and 2019 uncovered a pincer gate (Zangentor): 7.1 metres wide, probably about 12.5 metres high — one of the largest of its kind known. Anyone walking across the plateau today is walking across a town plan.

On the summit stand St. Adelgunde's Chapel and the Staffelbergklause, the mountain inn. Since 1663 the parish fair (Kirchweih) has been held on the first Sunday in July, and above it all flies the red-and-white Franconian flag with the Franconian rake — because of the rough wind it is renewed every spring. Up here people tell of the "Querkele", little mountain spirits in their cave, and of the golden fish inside the mountain, which vanished together with its lake when a fisherman tried to catch it out of greed.

Eight paths lead up the Staffelberg. The shortest starts at the Romansthal hiking car park: about one kilometre, 20 to 30 minutes. The mountain is a protected natural monument — on the plateau cars, bicycles and e-bikes are strictly forbidden, and the last stretch is on foot only.

More about the Staffelberg: history, legends and all the hiking trails