Lausheim: Church Art and Hiking Trails

Lausheim draws attention to unusual church art, early archaeological finds and specific hiking trails. For those interested in culture, St. Nicholas Church is the main attraction; those planning to walk will find two different trail connections at the Lausheim-Blumegg railway stop. The Sauschwänzle Trail is 10.5 km long from there, while the first stage of the Schluchtensteig includes the stop as one point in a longer sequence of places. This makes it possible to combine art and local history with hiking plans.

St. Nicholas Church and Earlier Building Phases

St. Nicholas Church in Lausheim is a former pilgrimage church in the Renaissance style. It was built in 1616 under Abbot Martin I Meister. Its interior paintings date from before the Thirty Years’ War. The church also has an unusually extensive surviving painted decoration from the late Renaissance; examples of this kind are very rare. To understand the chronology, it is helpful to distinguish between the building and the paintings: 1616 is the year the church was built, while the paintings date from the period before the war. In the wider destination of Stühlingen, the Capuchin monastery includes a crypt. It offers a point of comparison elsewhere for religious architectural history alongside St. Nicholas Church in Lausheim.

During restoration work in 1968/69, at least three predecessor churches were identified in the excavation area, which was limited to the choir; the tower was already in existence. This means the building history visible in the church extends beyond the Renaissance structure.

Archaeological Traces and a Winter Custom

Beyond the history of the church building, archaeological evidence reaches much further back in time. In the Schiedhag district, Early Bronze Age grave finds point to the period from 2000 to 1500 BC. They include an arm spiral, a small dagger and a copper band. This dating is well before the construction of St. Nicholas Church and adds a much earlier period of its own to Lausheim’s history. A Roman villa, or villa rustica, stood in the Fohrenschachen district. Bear Sunday is also part of Lausheim’s local history: it is an ancient custom for driving out winter.

Hiking from Lausheim-Blumegg

The Lausheim-Blumegg railway stop was established in 1899 to transport timber from the Black Forest. The 10.5 km Sauschwänzle Trail starts there. The first stage of the Schluchtensteig runs from Stühlingen via Weizen railway station and the Lausheim-Blumegg railway stop, through the Wutachflühen gorge and over the Buchberg to Blumberg. The two routes offer different kinds of guidance for planning: the Sauschwänzle Trail has a specified length, while the Schluchtensteig stage is described by its sequence of starting point, stops, landscape section and destination.

From the railway stop, hikers can take a historic train on the Sauschwänzlebahn back to Blumberg-Zollhaus station. The train does not run every day. Check the operating days before your trip if you plan to take this return journey.

For the wider travel overview: Stühlingen.