Forty years ago, the 130-kilometre “Idyllic Route” was launched. The tourist holiday route between Mainhardt and Alfdorf, Spiegelberg and Abtsgmünd leads you away from the large tourist routes past old mills, bathing lakes, Limes relics and reconstructions. It encompasses one of the most beautiful hiking landscapes in southern Germany: the Swabian Forest.

However, life wasn’t always idyllic along this tourist route. Today, former collieries and glassworks bear witness to the vain striving for a little bit of wealth. The landscape, however, with the woods interspersed by ravines and gorges, presents a romantic picture; and the fields with their characteristic orchard meadows appear tranquil and peaceful – simply idyllic. In the three former Roman forts of Mainhardt, Murrhardt and Welzheim along the way, archaeologists have found an amazing number of objects from daily life from the Roman period.