Hornberg: Themed Trail, Castle Views and Town Museum

Hornberg offers a variety of experiences, from the Hornberger Schießen Trail and views from the castle hill to the town museum. The Hornberger Schießen is also performed annually at the open-air theatre. When planning your trip, you can choose from different ways to experience the town: a circular walk with a specified distance and duration, a museum with a monthly opening time, and a performance during the summer months.

Follow the Hornberger Schießen Trail to the castle hill

The Hornberger Schießen Trail is 2.58 kilometres long and has 14 stops; allow about 1 hour and 45 minutes for the circular walk. The route climbs up to Hornberg Castle. Its distance, number of stops and estimated duration give you a concrete framework for fitting the walk into your day. From the castle hill, you can see the town, the Black Forest Railway viaduct and the Gutach Valley. The trail combines a well-defined circular walk with views of the town, railway viaduct and valley.

Town museum, castle and performance

At Hornberg Town Museum, you can explore the different museum areas on a guided tour or at your own pace. It is open year-round on the first Sunday of each month from 2 to 5 p.m. This makes it easy to plan your visit around a set monthly time slot; check the opening hours before you go. The castle keep (residential tower), powder tower and a small turret remain at Hornberg Castle. These different architectural features give the castle a distinctive character.

The Hornberger Schießen is performed every year in July and August by the Hornberg Historical Society at the Hornberg Open-Air Theatre. If you would like to plan your trip around it, check the current programme in advance. The performance season differs from the museum’s monthly opening schedule: the performance takes place in July and August, while the town museum is open on the first Sunday of each month.

You can tailor your search to the experiences that matter most for your trip.

Ortenau District: more nature and cultural experiences

The Ortenau District lies between the Rhine and the Black Forest. This wider travel destination has 23 nature reserves covering around 3,110 hectares in total, stretching from the Rhine Plain to the higher elevations of the Black Forest. The Taubergießen Nature Reserve covers 1,695 hectares and is one of the largest nature reserves in Baden-Württemberg. These regional landscape figures describe the Ortenau District, not individual experiences in Hornberg.

Cultural attractions in the Ortenau District offer their own highlights, too. At the Black Forest Open-Air Museum Vogtsbauernhof, a tour of historic farmhouses shows how people lived and worked in the Black Forest up to 600 years ago. The MiMa museum showcases unique minerals from the Black Forest, collected by the Friends of Minerals and Mining Oberwolfach association. In Gengenbach, the Night Watchman’s tour includes 12 stops and the traditional night watchman’s song. Public tours are free; no registration is required.

Europa-Park is located in Rust. Rulantica offers water-based fun for the whole family all year round, with numerous indoor and outdoor water attractions. The facilities also include Hyggedal, a relaxation and sauna area. These regional examples offer different highlights from Hornberg’s trail, castle and town museum, and can help you choose what to focus on during a trip to the Ortenau District.

Discover more destinations: Niederwasser, Hausach, Rheinau, Lautenbach, Achern, Schutterwald, Rust, Renchen.

Back to the main travel guide: Ortenau District.