Schmerbach: Fountain Festival, Charcoal Burner Festival and Local History

In Schmerbach, fountains and traditional festivals give the village a distinctive character. The annual Fountain Festival on Whit Sunday commemorates a specific event in local history: in 1861, the wooden troughs at the public fountains were replaced with stone ones. The old running fountains also contribute to the village’s character and were incorporated into the redesign of streets and squares. The village thus brings together visible fountains and a festival tradition that recalls their history.

Fountains and Village History

The running fountains are more than a reason to hold a festival: they are a lasting feature of Schmerbach’s village character. Their incorporation into the redesign of streets and squares connects the village’s historic character with changes to public spaces. The Fountain Festival, in turn, provides an annual occasion to remember the replacement of the troughs. Visitors interested in how a place has developed will find two different ways to explore its history here: the fountains as part of today’s village character, and the story of their replacement with stone ones in 1861.

Charcoal Burner Festival and Craft Tradition

Another highlight is the Charcoal Burner Festival, held in the first week of July and celebrating the local tradition of charcoal making. Visitors can watch charcoal being made around the charcoal kiln. This clearly distinguishes it from the Fountain Festival: the latter focuses on the history of the public fountains, while this one showcases a traditional craft and its process. For planning your trip, the festivals offer different themes and dates. If you want to make one of them a focal point of your trip, check the dates for your travel year in advance.

A route passes through Schmerbach

Regional Route 2, “Am Großen Inselsberg,” also passes through Schmerbach. Along with the festivals and running fountains, it gives you more than one reason to include the village in your travel plans: you can focus on local history, charcoal making or the route itself. Schmerbach’s distinctive attractions can help you choose accommodation based on your own travel interests, rather than treating all places and activities equally.

Culture in the wider Waltershausen destination

The wider Waltershausen destination has its own cultural attractions, extending beyond Schmerbach’s village traditions. The GutsMuths Memorial Hall in Schnepfenthal is a venue for sport and culture. It offers information about history, nature, GutsMuths and the Rennsteiglauf, and has also established itself as a gallery hosting special exhibitions. Outside, information panels describe GutsMuths and his pupils; the grounds also feature trees from every continent.

Schnepfenthal also offers other notable sights: the historic cemetery in Hardt, an old manor house and the Salzmannschule grammar school. These attractions offer a different focus from the festivals and fountains in Schmerbach. They can be explored as a distinct cultural and historical highlight within the wider Waltershausen destination, without conflating the places or their individual features.

Baroque Architecture in Waltershausen

In Waltershausen itself, the ballroom at Tenneberg Castle tells the story of Baroque architecture and art. Dating from 1719, it is one of the castle’s three surviving Baroque rooms and features a ceiling painting by Johann Heinrich Ritter, a court painter in Thuringia. Its date, setting and painting give the room a clearly defined architectural character.

Another notable building is the Stadtkirche “Zur Gotteshilfe” in Waltershausen. It is considered Thuringia’s first major Baroque central-plan church and a precursor to Dresden’s Frauenkirche in its layout and construction. Its organ can also be described in precise figures: it has three manuals, 53 sounding stops and 2,806 pipes. Visitors interested in architecture will find a distinct point of comparison with Schmerbach’s local history and fountains in the wider Waltershausen destination.

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