Location/ Region/ Weather

Location and Region

Issigau castle - is located in the far north of the Frankenwald region of Bavaria, in the vacation region of Selbitztal, between Munich, Berlin/ Hof, and Bad Steben close to highway A9, exit 31. It is located at 524m NN on the gentle wooded slopes of the Frankenwald nature park, at the edge of the village of Issigau on the foot of Herrenberg hill.

Issigau castle - is central location is ideal for day trips to Thuringia, Saxony, the Erzgebirge or the Czech Republic. Without a car you can easily reach destinations such as the only mine in the Frankenwald region open to visitors, the romantic Hollental with its “Konig David”, Wiede tower and “Hirschsprung”, the central hiking point where the three trails Rennsteig, Frankenweg and Frankischer Gebirgsweg meet as well as the historical village church with its cassette ceiling featuring 56 individual pictures. Further activities include trips to the Saalfelder Feengrotten, the Syruauer Drachenholen, Bad Steben with its casino and spa, the Lokland of Selbitz, the Border Museum in Modlareuth, the Farm Museum in Kleinlositz, the Teddy Bear Museum in Hof, the Firefighter Museum in Schauenstein, the Muesum of Castle Burgk at the Saale dam, the German Steam Locomotive Museum and the Butterfly Paradise in Neuenmarkt. Trips to Richard Wagner’s Bayreuth, the medieval city of Bamberg, Kronach with its exhibition featuring works of Lucas Cranach in the Rosenberg keep and the beer city Kulmbach with the world’s largest collection of tin figurines are always worthwhile.

Region

The Frankenwald nature park with its gentle hills and deep dales is a low, densely wooded mountain range in the north east of Bavaria with a maximum height of 794m. Due to the densely wooded inclines, the humid and cold climate, and the close proximity of wooded areas, meadows and water, the region offers habitats for endangered animal species. During the middle ages, wood clearings were done especially on the high plateaus to make room for settlements, farming and grazing. These clearings are partly still visible today. Additionally, the forest changed as well. Originally composed mainly of fir trees and deciduous trees, it is now severely dominated by spruce trees that were seeded during the heyday of the lumber industry and of rafting (18th and 19th century) because they grew faster. Already in 1973 Frankenwald was declared a nature park consisting of nine landscape protection regions and 15 nature preserves that together compose more than half of the total area of 100.000 hectar. 2001 the park was one of the first to be accepted in the EUROPARC program for its continuing engagement in sustainable tourism, thus belonging to a small circle of nature parks and national parks devoted to combining attractive offers for tourists with the preservation of landscape and nature.