Top 20 Bike Parks around Söhrewald

The Lindenwälchen with its open-air stage is today a venue for open-air cinema, theatre, concerts, and also bicycle trial championships. The open-air stage is a former quarry. The stones were used, for example, for the construction of the "Lange Brücke" on Bahnhofstraße in the suburb. Then the quarry lay fallow for a long time. In 1948, the architect Tollhopf wanted to create a cultural centre for the displaced persons and built the open-air stage. The Lindenwäldchen was formerly an arboretum (a planting of various trees for study purposes). The forestry school in Melsungen at the time planted non-native trees there. A memorial stone still reminds us today of the forester who planned the Lindenwäldchen. Source: https://www.grimmheimat.de/media/attraktionen/lindenwaeldchen-mit-freilichtbuehne#/article/5843971b-7e6c-4292-9fc9-c1dff82720db

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Lindenberg was a "wild hill", a grassy hill with thorny bushes, with only a single tree standing on its top, where a memorial stone was later placed in 1911 for the city forester Philipp Stahl. The Alte Nürnberger Straße leads past the slope facing the city, with two lanes. Source: https://www.lauftreff-melsungen.de/2014-05-01_Bericht_historische_Wanderung_1.Mai_2014.pdf

"Melsungen received a beautiful open-air stage for the 1950 local festival. "It will be preserved for posterity"..., writes a chronicler, "as a convincing expression of the desire for culture at a time when people were still burdened with more earthly worries." This can be read in the book "Melsungen - The History of a Town". This meeting place has been almost forgotten and is only occasionally used for small-scale events. The idea of restoring the former open-air stage and making it available to the people of Melsungen arose at a seminar held by the youth welfare service and youth parliament in November 2000. The then speaker of the youth parliament presented the idea to the Agenda office as a possible Agenda project. The idea was fleshed out in the social affairs working group. At the beginning of July 2002, 15 young people restored the open-air stage with the help of members of the Local Agenda 21, employees of the building yard and a specialist company. Many hours of work were spent removing moss from the stones with a wire brush, removing rubbish and covering the seating areas with grit. In 2003, the remaining work, such as erecting a handrail, providing electricity and setting up lamps on the footpath to the open-air stage, was carried out by the building authority. Source: https://www.freilichtbuehne-melsungen.de/historie/

Memorial stone

The natural stage was built in 1950 in the former quarry, where the sandstone for the Melsung railway viaduct was quarried in the middle of the 19th century. However, after a short period of flowering, it was almost forgotten. But at the turn of the millennium it was brought out of its slumber and since 2003, open-air film screenings have taken place regularly in the summer months. The ASC-Melsungen bicycle trial area is located around the open-air stage. A memorial stone with the inscription “To the city forester PHILIPP STAHL for his services to the Lindenberg on his birthday July 2nd, 1911” still points to the initiator of the Lindenberg complex.

A speeding MTB almost ran over me (hiker) here. Hiking trail not suitable for MTB. Too narrow, too tight. endangers, coerces, harasses hikers. In Baden-Württemberg, hiking trails less than 2m wide are not permitted for MTB. Hopefully soon in the rest of Germany too. Alternative: MTB CLUBES, step on the gas and design your own trails in collaboration with forest owners and authorities. It already happens to some extent.

Beautiful trail that becomes increasingly narrow from Sandershausen to the smugglers' gorge. No problem at the beginning even with the touring bike, towards the end there were also narrow, rooty passages that I gave up on my gravel bike and pushed briefly. Definitely worth a detour through the scenery!

Beautiful descent, with a slight incline.