Through Zwotaer Land 5

We board the Vogtlandbahn at Zwota stop and travel to the Schöneck-IFA-Ferienpark "Hohe Reuth" stop, which is the starting point of our hike. We walk on the ridge path (red/blue markings) towards Wohlbach and to the source of the Zwota, reaching the Oberzwota-Schöneck church path with (yellow) markings.

  We go left (yellow) later at the former Kärrnerstraße (yellow dot), in the direction of the source area into the "Faulen Wiesen" and the source of the Zwotabach. The moor there has a layer of approximately 30 – 50 cm. We cross the Kärrnerstraße. We reach the source and then the mill pond. This belonged to the mill in Gunzen. As atonement, a perpetrator had to dig a ditch (the murder ditch) from the mill pond toward Gunzen, which directed the water of the Zwota westward over the mill in Gunzen to the Weißen Elster.

  We walk following the yellow marking to Zwotental. In popular speech and forestry, this path is also called "hearse path" or "corpse path" because Oberzwota used to belong to the Schöneck parish, and thus the deceased were buried in Schöneck. We arrive in Zwotental. This was an important junction of the railway line, which led from Bavaria via Adorf-Aue to the Chemnitz industrial area and connected the coal deposits in Bohemian Falkenau (today Sokolov), whose coal was delivered to Saxony via Klingenthal.

  The Zwotental station was inaugurated on November 15, 1875, with the opening of the Chemnitz-Aue-Adorf line. From 1892, it was also a junction point of the Falkenau-Klingenthal-Herlasgrün/Reichenbach line.

  The station had various names.

  Until September 30, 1902: Zwota

  From October 1, 1902: Zwota Bahnhof

  From May 1, 1909: Zwotental

The station had, at the height of its importance for traffic, two signal boxes, eight through tracks, 22 switches, and five platforms. In 1906, more than 300,000 tons of coal came from the Falkenau mining district. To overcome the incline to Schöneck, trains ran with banking locomotives. In the 1980s, there were plans to develop Zwotental as a container station for cross-border traffic with the former CSSR. The dismantling of the railway facility took place in 1996/97.

  The station also had a restaurant with a club room. Food and drinks were sold on the platforms through a window.

  There was also a second restaurant, the "Gasthof Zwotental," Bahnstraße 7 (today "Tier-Heilpraxis").

  A few words about the restaurant:

The building was constructed in 1881 by Ernst Eduard Wunderlich from Adorf. From 1883, it was a small grocery store; in 1889, the restaurant operation was approved. In 1896, Friedrich Hirsch, previously tenant of the Tannenhaus near Schöneck, took over the restaurant. After his death, the hostess continued the operation until 1925. In 1926, Martin Reichelt bought the restaurant, which was then operated until 1961 by his daughter Ursula Stengel. Afterwards, the VEB "Textilwerke Palla" used the building as a holiday home until 1991. The current owners bought it in 1997. Besides the restaurant, there was a football field that was very popular among the youth from Zechenbach, Oberzwota, and Zwotental.

  From Zwotental, our path leads on Bahnstraße (yellow dot) to Oberzwota. We come to the Wolfsbach (today the border between Klingenthal and Schöneck), where a cutting mill stood before 1567.

  On the left side at the junction with Kottenheider Straße (formerly "Gasthof Oberzwota," also called "Eberts Gasthof") was the upper hammer mill (the westernmost location of a hammer mill in the Erzgebirge). (Further explanations are found on the information board).

  We walk along Bahnhofstraße to the Vogtlandbahn Zwota-Zechenbach stop.

  There, we continue our hike on the Alten Weg. On the right side, we see in the valley the Zwotabach, which forms the natural boundary between the Erzgebirge and the Elstergebirge, and continue to the end point of our tour, the Hammerplatz.

Family tip - sights and leisure activities nearby/on the route:

• IFA Schöneck Hotel & Ferienpark with playground and adventure pool
• family-friendly town Schöneck with Schöneck bike world
• Climbing forest Schöneck
• Leisure facility Zwota with mini golf course and gondola pond
• Accordion museum Klingenthal/Zwota

Dr. Barthel, Vogtland Music Region, 7th edition

Hiking tours through the Zwotaer Land (available at Gasthof zum Walfisch, Gasthof Zwota, and Ferienhotel Zwotatal)