Discover Heubach: Observatory and Planet Trail

Heubach brings together an observatory, a planet trail, and indoor sports, offering three different points of interest for a stay. When planning your trip, you can weigh up whether you are more interested in astronomy, a hike, or indoor exercise.

Observatory and Planet Trail

The observatory at the Heubach school and leisure camp opened on May 14, 2009. If you would like to visit the observatory, please check in advance whether visits are possible.

The Planet Trail takes visitors from Heubach to Masserberg; the 3.8 km hike can begin at the small observatory in Heubach. This brings together the observatory theme and a hike with Masserberg as the destination at one possible starting point. You can consider the trail as an outdoor option in its own right and treat the observatory as a separate attraction during your stay. Its stated length gives the hike a clearly defined scope for planning your trip.

Indoor sports as another focus

The Heubach Sports Center includes a two-court tennis hall with a Grand Prix court and an adjacent squash hall. The difference from the Planet Trail hike lies in the focus: here, it is tennis or squash indoors; there, it is a 3.8 km hike outdoors. If you plan to use the halls, check their current availability in advance.

Masserberg: Nature, Activities, and Culture

In the wider destination of Masserberg, the Rennsteig runs right by the village; forest meadows, beech woods, and spruce forests surround Masserberg. Numerous well-marked hiking trails and the Rennsteig make it possible to hike through the Thuringian Forest Nature Park. Along the ridge, you can walk comfortably in various directions with little change in elevation, or take a horse-drawn carriage ride.

The barefoot trail laid out by the Masserberg tourism association passes over natural forest soil, sharp wood chips, wooden tree discs, and soft moss. Ridge hikes and the barefoot trail offer different experiences: on the ridge hikes, the route and gentle changes in elevation are the focus, while on the barefoot trail, it is the changing surfaces.

The Rennsteigwarte on 842 m-high Eselsberg offers a different perspective: from there, the panoramic view extends across the Thuringian Forest and its foothills. The tower, built in 1974, replaced two earlier wooden towers, which were destroyed by a storm in 1951 and by a lightning strike in 1974, respectively.

Today’s Evangelical Mountain Church of Masserberg was consecrated on October 9, 1883, after the church that previously stood there was destroyed in a fire in 1880. Since the third Sunday of Advent in 1980, the church has housed the “Masserberger Christ King,” a work carved from a lime-tree trunk by Greiz sculptor Elly-Viola Nahmmacher. The sculpture is 3 m high and 2.65 m wide.

Discover more destinations: Biberschlag, Sachsenbrunn, Suhl, Masserberg, Auengrund, Oberstadt, Ehrenberg, Henfstädt.

Back to the wider travel overview: Hildburghausen-Suhl.