Partnach Gorge

Interesting facts

Until the 1960s the stream was used to float firewood down from the Reintal, each log marked with its owner's sign before being thrown into the spring meltwater.

Men who freed jammed logs in the gorge sometimes lost their lives, and painted memorial panels at a wayside cross near the entrance recall them.

As early as the 18th century locals risked their lives in the gorge to bring firewood down to Partenkirchen.

The lumpy Triassic limestone of the walls, about 240 million years old, still shows burrows and feeding traces left by ancient sea creatures.

The softer marls laid down about five million years after the limestone are called the Partnach Beds after this very stream.

No one was hurt in the 1991 rockfall, which left a small natural lake behind the fallen boulders; windows in the bypass tunnel overlook the scene.

In 2002 the gorge received the official title of one of Bavaria's most beautiful geotopes.

The gorge is about 702 metres long, and its floor lies at roughly 800 metres above sea level midway through.

The path keeps to the right bank of the stream throughout, and an iron footbridge crosses high above the gorge for a view straight down.

Why it is worth it

The Partnach Gorge is a narrow slot cut by the Partnach stream into the limestone just south of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and walking through it feels like being swallowed by the mountain. For about 700 metres the path runs along the wall of the gorge, partly through tunnels blasted in the rock, while the walls close in above to heights of more than 80 metres and the water, fed from the Zugspitze plateau, roars a few metres below. The rock is Alpine Muschelkalk, a shell-bearing limestone of the Triassic, interleaved with softer marls that the stream has scoured into smooth hollows and ledges.

Before it became a sight, the gorge was a workplace. Timber felled in the valleys above was sent down the Partnach to the valley floor, and the only way to follow it was along a precarious wooden walkway. The present path was cut into the rock around 1910 to 1912, and in 1912 the gorge was declared a natural monument. On 1 June 1991 some 5,000 cubic metres of rock broke away from one wall; rather than close the gorge, engineers blasted a 108-metre gallery through the rock to carry the path around the debris.

The gorge has two very different seasons. In summer it is all noise and spray, with light filtering green through the gap overhead; in winter the dripping walls freeze into curtains and columns of ice, and the path becomes a corridor of icicles. The gorge was a location for the 1979 film Nosferatu the Vampyre, and it is easy to see why.

Getting there

The entrance is about 4 km from the centre of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. From the car park at the Olympic ski stadium it is roughly a 25-minute walk along the road to the gorge. The nearest airport is Innsbruck Airport (INN), about 28 km away in a straight line across the border; the nearest German airport is Memmingen (FMM), about 89 km away.

From the encyclopaedia

The Partnach Gorge is a deep gorge that has been incised by a mountain stream, the Partnach, in the Reintal valley near the south German town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The gorge is 702 metres (2,303 ft) long and, in places, over 80 metres (260 ft) deep. It was designated a natural monument in 1912.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Partnach Gorge

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia