Breitnau Things to Do

You may powder your nose at one of the small buildings next to the large parking, and they have a really funny signpost for it, where you may also see the lovely traditional costumes of the Black Forrest:
The ladies have a special hat with red balls on it, and I have once heared, that by the color of these balls you may see immediately if she is married or not.

Take a closer look at the lovely ornaments and decorations in the facade of the hotel. When you click on my picture you may see even a lovely bird's nest painted on top of the window.
Take a walk around the building and search for these great decorations, they are different at most of the windows.

Hofgut Sternen is an area with several houses, the hotel, a shop with the coo-coo-clock, St.Oswald-church , the tollhouse, a large parking and the big traditional well in the very centre of that area, that you will find, when you have left the main-road through Höllental and take a side-street to get tho "Hofgut Sternen".
This star on top of the well obviously gave the name to the place, as "Sternen" or rather Stern is the german name for Star.
Sternen is a great place to relax and take a break from the stress, when driving through "Höllental" - you may park your car free of charge there and go hiking in the area !

Just a few meters behind the Hotel Hofgut Sternen you may walk the "mill-path" with plenty of interesting exhibits like the one on my picture, dating back to the old times, when sawing-mills were found all over the Black Forrest.
Other places of interest along the "mill-path" are :
Großjockenmühle in Ravennaschlucht
Historische Hofmühle 19th century
to be visited by appointment Tel: 07652 438.
Wasserkraft-Drahtseiltrieb - a saw powered by water, dating back to 1900
Kingenhofsäge im Löffeltal
Schwarzwälder Klopfsäge 18th century
It is open from may till November, all sundays in the afternoon and for groups upon reservation also during the week:
reservations: Tel: 07652 1693

There used to be a Toll-house in the Ravennaschlucht for travellers in the middle-ages and so this place in Breitnau was a perfect place to build an inn and a hotel. At the end of the 19th century the train-line through "Höllental" (hell-valley) was constructed and in Ravennaschlucht it was necessary to build a giant viaduct, that is still used today for the trains running between Freiburg and Tittisee.

For my russian friends I even found a link to a russian webpage about Hofgut Sternen - see my link below !

Next to Hofgut Sternen you may see the oldest church in the area of the Black Forrest : St.Oswald dates back to the year 1148 and you may get the key to that church at the reception of the hotel.
When you click on my picture, you may as well see a traditional fence, made of wooden sticks, just put togeather without any nails or other fixtures.

Marie Antoinette - the austrian princess and youngest daughter of empress Maria Theresia came to Hofgut Sternen in 1770, when she was just 14 years old and was on the way to Paris, where she was supposed to meet her future husband, the 15 years old Ludwig - the later king Ludwig XVI.
Above the entrance to the hotel you may still see a painting commemorizing that special event and you may imagine, what such a royal carriage looked like.
You may as well see,that the hotel did not change since that time and on the left of the picture you may also see the small church of St.Oswald.