Iron Route Wölflinswil-Herznach

Jurapark Aargau - For centuries, iron ore was mined between Herznach and Wölflinswil. Follow the traces of the miners. But not only iron lies in the picturesque Jura landscape: with a bit of luck, you will find fossils along the path.

Archaeological finds in the Fricktal region prove that the Alemanni already produced iron here. The ore mines between Wölflinswil and Zeihen were first mentioned in writing in the 13th century, and from 1937 to 1967 iron ore was also mined industrially. Today, you can stay overnight in the old mining silo in Herznach instead of iron production. The mine railway and an exhibition on the history of iron at the Herznach mine attract visitors. In Zeihen along the Iron Route, you can still see a bog iron deposit site.

But what are eight hundred years of ore mining compared to 300 million years of Earth's history? At the Wölflinswil trench stands the «multimillionaire» , a box with rock samples from all layers, and in the mining museum numerous ammonites and other fossils are exhibited.

The entire Iron Route is about 18 km long. This stage from Wölflinswil to Herznach is about 7 km long.