Iron Route

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

Archaeological finds in the Fricktal show 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 the iron production. The mine railway and an exhibition on the history of iron at the Herznach mine invite you to visit. In Zeihen along the Iron Route, you can still see a bog iron ore deposit.

But what are eight hundred years of ore mining compared to 300 million years of earth history? At the Wölflinswil trench stands the «multi-millionaire», 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. Stages lead from Wölflinswil to Herznach, from Herznach to Zeihen and from Zeihen up to the Homberg.