Ehekirchen: Hiking Trails, Village Churches and Views of the Donaumoos

Ehekirchen combines hiking trails with sweeping views across the landscape and special details from the village’s history. Along the routes, you’ll encounter the Donaumoos, protected dry slopes and places where nature watching goes hand in hand with small historical discoveries. The churches in the different districts also tell of different building periods and works of art.

Hiking trails with views across the moor and wildlife watching

The “Ambachrunde” offers views across the vast Donaumoos. When the foehn wind blows, the Alpine ridge can be seen to the south. The “Rund um Ehekirchen” hiking trail also offers views of the Donaumoos, the Alps and the surrounding hill country; its route circles the main village. If you’d like to combine scenery with wildlife watching, you can see many birds, water buffalo and a large herd of Murnau-Werdenfels cattle at the retention basin along the “Baierner Flecken” route. The trail crosses the Längenmühlbach stream and leads through the forest along its final stretch over a dam.

Compare routes by length and landscape

The route lengths provide a practical guide for planning your day: the “Leitenbachweg” is 2.8 kilometres long, and the “Ambachrunde” is 3.17 kilometres. Both are shorter than the 6.34-kilometre “Baierner Flecken” trail and the equally long “Bucher Wandertour.” Near Bonsal, the “Leitenbachweg” follows a slope covered in hedgerows to the eastern boundary of Illdorf. A detour leads across flower-rich, protected dry slopes above Illdorf. The Haselbach Valley along the “Bucher Wandertour” is predominantly grassland.

Other routes offer different highlights: the “Gumppenbergrunde” is 8.85 kilometres long, while “Rund um Ehekirchen” is 7.28 kilometres. The “Lorenzi-Donaumoos” route is 14.2 kilometres long and connects the expanses of the upper Donaumoos with the wooded Aindling terrace steps; far-reaching views extend to the east and south. At 15.2 kilometres, the “Streichholzrunde” is the longest circuit in the Ehekirchen hiking programme. On the outskirts of Bonsal, it passes a stone cross. The municipality provides route maps as PDFs as well as GPX files for smartphones with a GPS-enabled app. The route lengths, together with the landscapes described, can help you choose a trail.

Village churches with their own stories

The churches in Ehekirchen and its districts also reveal different chapters in local history. The new parish church in Ehekirchen was solemnly consecrated on 25 August 1896 by diocesan bishop Petrus v. Hötzl, with 26 clergy in attendance. In Hollenbach, the tower of a larger church dating from the 15th century has been preserved. The nave was renovated several times, and in 1720 the interior was refurbished and given a Baroque makeover. The torso of a Roman funerary monument is built into the outer wall of Holzkirchen’s village church—a remarkable detail that can be spotted simply by looking at the church wall.

Bonsal’s church contains two historic sculptures: “The Death of Mary” dates from around 1480, while the valuable “Lamentation of Christ” was created around 1500. The church in Buch was built around 1500 and received an extended nave in 1787. In Ambach, the church was built in 1450 and later devastated by the Swedes during the Thirty Years’ War; it was rebuilt around 1690. The Emperor’s Oak, also known as the Peace Oak, was planted in Ehekirchen in 1871.

The focus of your stay can help you choose accommodation: would you mainly like to hike and experience the landscape, or are you also interested in the churches and their history? The routes and local details described here give you different points of reference for planning your trip around the activities that matter to you.

Neuburg-Schrobenhausen as the wider destination

The wider destination of Neuburg-Schrobenhausen features a variety of landscapes, from rock formations in the north and floodplain forest along the Danube to the Donaumoos with its deep-black soil and the distinctive asparagus fields of the Schrobenhausen region in the south. The region’s cultural history offers another highlight: Neuburg Residence is an important Early Renaissance complex, built by Count Palatine Ottheinrich from 1530 to 1545. Its palace chapel is one of the oldest Protestant church buildings in the world and features frescoes by Hans Bocksberger from 1543. These regional impressions complement the picture of Ehekirchen’s hiking trails and village churches without replacing the stories of the village itself.

Discover more destinations: Rennertshofen, Neuburg An Der Donau, Schrobenhausen, Karlskron, Weichering.

Return to the overview of the wider destination: Neuburg-Schrobenhausen.