Egloffsteiner Felsenkeller

Felsenkeller in Egloffstein

The Egloffsteiner Felsenkeller is an artificially created rock cellar in Markt Egloffstein in Upper Franconia in the Forchheim district in Bavaria .

location

The rock cellar is located below the castle rock in the center of Egloffstein. Three entrances lead into the interior of the mountain. Two of them are located in Felsenkellerstraße below the Raiffeisenbank parking lot, the third leads from a barn (house number 22) into the cellar.

description

Over an area of around 12,000 square meters, 14 cellar corridors with a length of around 700 meters lead into the castle hill and form an extensive system of plots , corridors and connections. It is believed that the cellars were already there in the early Middle Ages. At that time, the striking castle complex initially served as a refuge in case of danger. Later the cellars were sought out for protection. At the beginning of the 19th century, 24 parceled cellar departments were created and given to the Egloffstein population. The Egloffsteiner hosts and brewers, who maintained their own communal brewery until the end of the 19th century, stored their beers there , the butchers their meat and the farmers their potatoes and beets.

geology

The upper layers of the rock are defined by white-yellow to light-gray limestone and dolomite rocks . The cellars are dug into a soft sandstone layer in the 15-meter-thick layer below . Between the Jura and the sandstone there is still a water-impermeable layer of clay . The sandstone deposits were suitable for the extraction of sand for the construction industry. Since 1728 they have been used as a quarry and for extracting parlor sand .

The entire complex has been designated as a historical building by the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments (D-4-74-124-49).

Access

The cellars are open all year round and can be viewed at your own risk. There is no lighting. Guided tours are organized by the Egloffstein Tourist Information. To protect the bats that hibernate there, however, the cellars should not be entered from October to April.