Bodenmais: Discover Nature and Culture

Experiences from Mining Tunnels to Mountain Summits

On a guided tour of the Historic Bodenmais Visitor Mine, the route passes through the more than 600-metre-long Barbara Tunnel to the Great Barbara Stopes. There, you can see machinery and hoisting shafts in operation. Both the route through the tunnel and a view of working mining equipment are part of this guided visit. The network of routes in Silberberg is also about 20 kilometres long. Together, these details give a concrete sense of the different scales of mining-related attractions in Bodenmais.

Those who want to explore the outdoors will find routes with a range of profiles. The Ameisenstraße is a 2.5-kilometre nature trail with 27 stations, suitable for pushchairs. Woid Woifes Welt includes a water adventure area with Kneipp pools and a boardwalk across a wetland. The Wildes-Wasser-Weg, meanwhile, connects two natural spectacles on a hiking route in Bodenmais.

The Rißloch Waterfalls offer another point of reference: they consist of five main cascades and are 55 metres high in total; the main waterfall is 15 metres high. Along the path to the waterfalls, Bavarian Forest Nature Park information boards explain the flora and fauna of the nature reserve. On this route, the experience of nature goes hand in hand with learning about the habitat.

The Seven Summits Bodenmais hike represents a very different scale. It takes in seven summits around the climatic health resort and covers 47 kilometres with 1,862 metres of elevation gain. Compared with the 2.5-kilometre Ameisenstraße, this is a considerably longer tour; the stated elevation gain offers further guidance on the route profile. Which details matter most for your plans depends on the kind of route you want to include in your holiday.

Exhibitions and Art in Bodenmais

Changing exhibitions are held in the gallery on the first floor of the Altes Rathaus cultural centre. Each exhibition programme gives international artists and emerging artists a platform. The programme therefore offers a distinct cultural highlight alongside the trails and mining experiences. At the JOSKA Crystal Gardens, works of art complement the natural surroundings: sculptures made of glass, rusted metal and stone are integrated into the garden setting. In Bodenmais, changing gallery exhibitions and the sculptures in the JOSKA Crystal Gardens thus offer different artistic highlights.

When choosing a holiday apartment, you can use these interests as a starting point: would you like your stay to focus mainly on a hiking route, the natural landscape, mining, or art and exhibitions? The options described offer specific themes, without promising that they will all provide the same holiday experience.

A Separate Look at the Wider Destination of Regen

The wider destination of Regen also has its own historical and natural themes. In the town of Regen, the beer and ice cellars are regularly presented as the historic “Regener Underworld” on public tours, which explain their history. The quartz rocks near the Weißenstein castle ruins were placed under nature conservation in 1940 because of their geological significance. The Pfahl near Weißenstein is an important habitat for rare heat- and drought-loving animal and plant species adapted to nutrient-poor sites. These regional themes complement the picture of Bodenmais, but remain distinct experiences and natural sites within the wider destination of Regen.

Discover more destinations: Bischofsmais, Kirchdorf im Wald, Geiersthal, Viechtach, Prackenbach, Regen, Ruhmannsfelden, Kirchberg im Wald.

Back to the overview of the wider destination: Regen.