5 Calm Walks at the Upper Swabian Baroque Route

Facts:

1. Difficulty level: easy
2. Length: 1.41 kilometres
3. Duration: 0:25 h
4. Start/finish: parking Krummbach

A few rays of sunshine pierce the canopy of mighty trees, the stream babbles gently. Insects hum, the church clock strikes a new hour. The outline of the nearby monastery can be seen through the trees. The canal systems built by the Benedictine monks at the Krummbach Stream at Ochsenhausen Monastery are particularly idyllic. Numerous interconnected watercourses and ponds once provided water and energy to the monastery, its brewery and its mill. That is the reason the monastery already had a central water supply in the Renaissance. At the same time, the canal system was used for irrigation, sewage disposal and fish farming. Due to its minimal gradient, the canal is an early masterpiece hydraulic engineering. To this day, the Krummbach Stream is a valuable water reservoir which provides the town of Ochsenhausen with the majority of its drinking water and feeds the heat pump that heats the monastery church in winter. 

Facts:

1. Difficulty level: easy
2. Length: 4.94 kilometres
3. Duration: 1:22 h
4. Start/finish: Wald town hall

When Knight Burkhard von Weckenstein, a clerk to Emperor Frederick II, founded the Cistercian monastery in Wald for his two sisters Judita and Ita in 1212, those responsible for the order were faced with a major task: they had to provide the monastery with enough fish, as the Cistercians were once completely forbidden to eat meat. With a great technical skill, a total of twelve interconnected ponds were dammed so they could be used for fishing - a genuine medieval masterpiece. Today, information boards at the remaining ponds explain the technology and creation of this clever water system. There is a leisurely five-kilometre circular walk that links them all together, starting and finishing at the historical town hall in Wald. The monastery itself is also impressive: the walls and ceiling of the baroque parish church of are adorned with paintings by Meinrad von Au and stucco work by Andreas Schwarzmann.

Mönchsroth Abbey monastery complex has been located at the confluence of the Rot and Haslach Rivers since 1126. Large parts of the medieval monastery were destroyed by fire. The building was reconstructed in the High Baroque style in just 18 years. As well as the fire, water has also characterized the area: until 1683, the monastery courtyard was crossed by a ‘deep, wide ditch’ through which the Mühlenbach, a tributary of the Rot, flowed. It supplied energy to the monastery mill. The mill was driven by a mill wheel on the north side of the building. In the 17th century, the monks built an underground canal for the mill through the monastery courtyard. The tannery, dye works, and sawmill were also run from this canal, which flows into the Haslach River. Nowadays, you can explore the whole area, including the other prestigious historical monuments and works of art in Rot, along the Mönchsroth Path. There are 23 information boards along the way providing interesting facts about the different buildings.