Circular tour – Marquartstein – Schnappenkirche

Marquartstein parking bay Freiweidacher Straße – Staudach monument – source – Schnappenkirche – Schnappenbach – Kindlwand – Hochgern/Nock hikers’ car park – Schnappen circular route – starting point for a soul tour to the source with a cult character, a sacred atmosphere in the forest and a church where miracles are said to have happened on the Half-day SalzAlpenTour Marquartstein-Schnappenkirche, which is mostly covered on well-paved forest paths to the Marquartstein hiking car park, you have one thing above all: enough time to breathe deeply in the quiet forest, to escape from everyday life and to recharge your batteries on some lonely benches. Be it at the Staudach monument, which is the first to be reached from the starting point in Freiweidacher Straße near Marquartstein, or at the mystical spring in front of the Schnappenkirche, which is on a more impassable path. A highlight of the round is the great view at the Schnappenkirche. The pure walking time is about four hours. Being alone – many people are drawn to the mountains for precisely this reason. Well – you will probably never be completely alone on the SalzAlpenTour – Marquartstein-Schnappenkirche, it is too well located for that and offers the best views even without climbing the summit. Start of the SalzAlpenTour – Marquartstein-Schnappenkirche is in the Marquartstein district of Freiweidach. Shortly after this district you will find a parking bay right next to the road, our starting point. From here we start hiking on a well-paved forest road, which is often used as a walking route. This road soon leads uphill and offers the first opportunity for a contemplative detour: The Staudach monument, which is a little off the beaten track. This is well marked with a sign to the left of the forest road. At the imposing, religious Staudach monument you will find a wooden bench with a good view of Marquartstein. “Think-time-after” this seems to call out to the hiker, and so you will already take a short break here to come to yourself. If you take a closer look, you will find a memorial stone with a meaningful inscription and, last but not least, a wooden mailbox with the inscription “A word for you”. It is as if the atmosphere at the Staudach monument takes the speed out of the hiker’s step, who now sets his feet more carefully, sharpens his senses for the surroundings and so with open eyes from the Staudach monument over the cul-de-sac and back hike along a deep gorge that the Alplbach has carved out of the stone. We turn sharply to the right at a signpost from the “Diretissima” to the Staudacheralm and “walk for pleasure” first on a forest path, then on a partly very well-trodden path towards the Schnappenkirche. Here, altitude meters are collected and it goes up over hill and dale and roots in sometimes more, sometimes less narrow turns. The hiker’s thoughts escape more and more from everyday life, because almost nothing is heard of it anymore. The dense canopy of beech trees blocks out the hustle and bustle down in the valley, only the sounds of the forest and its animals can be heard. The sometimes very tall, straight trunks of the many trees, under which you climb up on wonderfully soft ground, almost look like the roof of a cathedral. The sun’s rays breaking off branches and leaves also appear like light shining through colorful windows into a church. Eventually, the ground under your hiking boots becomes increasingly rocky, small stones and larger, moss-covered boulders lie around, the path is washed out – and suddenly in the distance the smooth white of the Schnappenkirche (1100 m) shines through the wide halls of the tree trunks. To the right below the normal path, a very muddy path leads to a spring, easily recognizable by the simple wooden cross and several small “Stoamandl” that are piled up. The atmosphere at this modest-looking natural monument is mystical, which represents a counterpart to the nearby Schnappenkirche, which towers high into the sky. As Dorothea Steinbacher writes in her book “Holy Springs”, this spot was probably already a place of water cult among the Celts. According to their assessment, the place seems to have originally been a source sanctuary. The wooden fountain chapel dedicated to Saint Wolfgang is said to have stood above this spring. The Schnappenkirche, which can be seen glowing from afar in the Chiemgau, is also dedicated to St. Wolfgang.