Discover Lugau

Lugau offers several ways to get to know the town: mining history comes to life on themed trails, at sights and at a memorial site. Other highlights include the Kreuzkirche, a cultural center with several facilities, and an outdoor swimming pool for the summer. When planning your trip, you can choose between active pursuits, architectural and urban history, and cultural and seasonal leisure activities.

Traces of hard coal mining

Lugau’s sights include the Mining Museum on Pflockenstraße and the mining educational trail. They offer different ways to explore the subject of mining during a visit to the town: a museum and an educational trail. The Steinkohlenweg is an 18 km circular hiking trail through the former Lugau-Oelsnitz hard coal mining district. The Kohlenbahnradweg was created on former railway lines used for hard coal mining in the Lugau-Oelsnitz district. In this way, both trails reflect the history of the district, but in different forms.

At present, the Kohlenbahnradweg has been developed from Lugau town center for more than 8 km as far as the Mittelbach industrial estate. One paved section is 6 km long and 2.50 m wide; it can be used by cyclists, walkers and inline skaters. The routes differ in their layout: the Steinkohlenweg is an 18 km circular hike; for the Kohlenbahnradweg, the developed route and a paved section with several specified types of use are useful points of reference. You can first decide whether you would like to focus on a circular hike or the cycle path.

The Kreuzkirche and memorial sites

The church in Lugau has been known as the Kreuzkirche since 1954. It was built in three phases and extended in 1842/43, 1883 and 1906. Its furnishings include an organ made by the Ladegast company of Weißenfels. The construction phases and extensions give the church a multi-stage architectural history; the organ adds a specific named feature. This brings both the development of the building and a detail of its furnishings into focus.

The “Old Bell Tower” in Lugau houses two bells that are 500 and 700 years old, respectively. The churchyard in Lugau is the final resting place of 101 victims of the mining accident at the “Neue Fundgrube” on 1 July 1867. These sites highlight different aspects of history: the bells draw attention to their great age, while the churchyard commemorates a precisely dated accident and its victims.

Culture and summer leisure

The “Villa Facius” cultural center brings together the town library, the gallery or town museum, the Kulturhof and a multipurpose room. Its range extends from the library and gallery or town museum to the Kulturhof and multipurpose room—different facilities within the same cultural center. For travelers who would like to include urban culture alongside mining history, Villa Facius offers another point of interest.

Lugau is also part of the PURPLE PATH sculpture exhibition. This adds another cultural perspective to the town’s architectural and mining history. In summer, the outdoor swimming pool at Steegenwald is a Lugau leisure facility with a large waterslide. Its seasonal nature gives this attraction a distinct summer focus alongside the historical and cultural themes.

Discover more destinations: Pfaffroda, Zschopau, Raschau-Markersbach, Jahnsdorf/Erzgebirge, Neukirchen/Erzgebirge, Thalheim/Erzgebirge, Burkhardtsdorf, Oberwiesenthal.

Return to the regional travel overview: Erzgebirgskreis.