A stay in Hohenau offers two clearly distinct ways to explore the area: reverse glass painting and hiking. The Hohenau-Schönbrunn am Lusen cultural themed trail comprises two circular routes of different lengths, while the Hinterglaseum in Schönbrunn am Lusen offers a cultural focus of its own. The difference in duration is clear: one route is about 8.5 kilometres long, while the other is around 24 kilometres and is classed as a full-day hike.

Reverse glass painting in Schönbrunn am Lusen

The Hinterglaseum displays reverse glass paintings created around 200 years ago by the Raimundsreut Taferl painters. The museum also offers workshops and courses in its education room. You can explore the subject through both the works on display and the courses on offer. Reverse glass painting gives the cultural side of a stay in Hohenau a distinct focus, clearly different from choosing a hiking route.

Two circular routes, different time commitments

The Hohenau-Schönbrunn am Lusen cultural themed trail consists of two circular routes of different lengths, mostly on well-maintained paths. The Hohenau route is about 8.5 kilometres long and passes through the Hohenau hedgerow landscape and past moorland. It is the shorter of the two options. The Schönbrunn route is about 24 kilometres long and is a full-day hike through meadows and stream valleys in the northeastern part of the municipality. It crosses woods along the edge of Bavarian Forest National Park.

Your choice therefore depends on both the distance and the character of the landscape: the Hohenau route combines hedgerows and moorland, while the Schönbrunn route takes up a full day of hiking through meadows, stream valleys and woods along the edge of the national park. When planning your day, the longer route’s explicitly full-day duration is a useful distinction from the shorter option.

More activities in Hohenau

Activities for visitors to the municipality of Hohenau include horse riding, cycling and e-biking, as well as hiking. If you do not want to plan your trip solely around the two circular routes, you can take these activities into account as additional interests.

Freyung-Grafenau as a wider destination

Bavarian Forest National Park extends into the Freyung-Grafenau district. It opened on 7 October 1970 as Germany’s first national park. A 2024 zoning map classifies 75.37 percent of its area as natural zones.

The Buchberger Leite wild gorge offers a different landscape within the wider Freyung-Grafenau destination. There, steep rock barriers force the boulder-strewn, cascading Wolfsteiner Ohe into a deeply confined channel; remnants of primeval forest have been preserved in the moss- and fern-rich gorge woodland. An eight-kilometre themed hiking trail, with information boards and an accompanying brochure, runs through the Buchberger Leite between Freyung and Ringelai. Historic timber-floating walls, tunnels carved into the rock and above-ground canals bear witness to centuries of human activity there.

The Schramlhaus in Freyung is another cultural highlight in the wider Freyung-Grafenau destination. Built around 1700, the house is now the oldest farmhouse in Freyung and, in terms of its original character, one of the oldest in the district. It houses more than a hundred original reverse glass paintings associated with sacred folk art. The Wolfstein Local History Museum is also housed in the Schramlhaus.

Discover more destinations: Grafenau, Hinterschmiding, Jandelsbrunn, Röhrnbach, Neuschönau, Ringelai, Fürsteneck, Schönberg

View the wider travel overview: Freyung-Grafenau.