There are many legendary places that line this short hiking tour through the village of Eberstein. The trail begins at the market square and continues along the cemetery path via Oberer Platz. Here you soon come to a concrete staircase that leads uphill to the left.
After a short climb, hikers reach the mysterious “Holy Hole”: a cave that has been used as a place of worship since time immemorial and where stories and tales of Marian apparitions have accumulated over the centuries. Even today, stone tablets and an altar bear witness to this deep belief in the cave as a place of miracles. Hiking near St. Oswald in the Görtschitztal valley in Carinthia is therefore a mystical experience.
Charged with history
Back to the junction you hike through the forest to the ruins of Gillitzstein. The remains of the walls of the once proud trade seat of the Carinthian iron industry are still still tangibly charged with history.
A few meters further on, via the herb garden and its revealing “tree horoscope”, you return along the edge of the forest towards the village center, where hikers can enjoy the fluttering spectacle of the butterfly meadow behind the vicarage .
