The best running trails around Oberbösa

Beautiful hiking trail

The Kleine Wipper branches off from the Wipper at the Schere weir near Göllingen. It initially flows north, passing through the tunnel, reaching Bendeleben as the first town on the stream, and then turns east. Further downstream, it crosses the Thaleber Bach and flows past the entrance to the Barbarossa Cave. It then flows leisurely to Bad Frankenhausen and divides into two branches. One branch flows underground and parallel to the B85, while the other reaches the source. There, the water from this branch mixes with the water from bubbling brine springs. At the Kyffhäuser Therme spa, the two streams rejoin, and the combined stream is now called the Solgraben. It flows into the Unstrut from the left near Schönfeld.[4] Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleine_Wipper

The Kleine Wipper was built in the late Middle Ages to provide water for the Bad Frankenhausen saltworks. The approximately 530-meter-long Hanfenberg Tunnel (also known as the Wipper Tunnel or Mönchstunnel[3]) is particularly noteworthy for this period, as no other hydraulic engineering tunnels from this period are known. The Wipper Tunnel was first documented in 1404. However, since a waterworks at the Frankenhausen saltworks is documented as early as the 14th century, the construction of the Kleine Wipper is estimated to have been in the first half of the 14th century. This makes it presumably the oldest continuously operating hydraulic engineering structure in Germany. Its purpose explains why it bears the name Kleine Wipper only up to the Frankenhausen saltworks, but from there it is called the Solgraben. Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleine_Wipper

The Kleine Wipper, sometimes called the Frankenhäuser Wipper or Schützengraben, is an artificially created tributary of the Wipper River, which flows into the Unstrut River from the left as the Solgraben in the Kyffhäuserkreis district of northern Thuringia near Schönfeld. Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleine_Wipper

The Barbarossa Cave was discovered on December 20, 1865, during the excavation of a tunnel for copper ore mining. It was expanded and opened as a show cave under the name Falkenburg Cave in 1866. It was renamed Barbarossa Cave in 1866, when Friedrich Herthum (1828–1882), the Princely Mining Master of Könitz, used this name on the mine plan he had drawn. The name Barbarossa Cave entered literature in 1868, when Herthum published the first publication about the cave. It has a floor area of approximately 15,000 m². Of interest to visitors are the underground lakes, shimmering green due to their gypsum content, as well as the so-called Table and Chair of Barbarossa. Wikipedia

The Geo-Park Information Center opened in 2021. In the futuristic-looking building, the geology of the entire Kyffhäuser region can be experienced. With the help of modern media, visitors of all ages can see and feel what rocks there are in the region, what is made from them and what they were used for in the past.

The Barbarossa Cave was discovered purely by chance. The idea was to revive copper shale mining in the Kyffhäuser region. In 1860, the entrepreneur Wilhelm von Born therefore had a tunnel dug beneath the ruins of the Falkenburg and directly on the old salt road to Bad Frankenhausen. Meter by meter, the miners penetrated further and further into the mountain. And then: after a distance of 178 meters, on December 22, 1865, the mountain suddenly opened up in front of them - they came across natural cavities of impressive size and beauty.

The Barbarossa Cave was discovered in 1865 by miners searching for copper shale and opened to the public as a show cave two weeks later. A visit is definitely worthwhile, admission costs €9.50.