Places on the bicycle route: Water-village Blauenthal

The incorporation of Blauenthal goes back hundreds of years and is closely linked to the abundance of water in this place. In the 15th century there was a water-powered flour mill as well as a saw mill where the Mulde and Bockau rivers joined. In 1518 Andreas Blau came from Nuremberg to Erzgebirge. The sheet metal producer and dealer later bought the flour mill and re-built it as an important hammer mill for the production of black and white sheet metal (black sheet metal = iron, white sheet metal = tin-coated iron). This Andreas Blau laid the foundation for the development of the town named after him (formerly called lower Blauenthal, while the village situated upstream was called the upper Blauenthal which is now Wolfsgrün).

Along with his brother, Balthasar, Andreas Blau maintained a trade office in Schneeberg for tin and other metals. In 1537 he founded the “New Company of the Sheet Metal Trade” in Zwickau. Later a blast furnace, a bar hammer, and an iron foundry was built, as well as a brewery and an inn. By 1840, high-quality white sheets were still being produced, until the hammer mill folded up.

Around 1880 the "Hammergut" estate with all of its vast property of forest and meadows came into the possession of the Toelle family. After World War II this family was dispossessed and fled to escape from the Soviet occupation zone. After 1989, the family then returned to Blauenthal.

The only building that remains standing from the old hammer mill is the elegant "Hammerherrenhaus”: a two-story baroque manor with a huge hipped roof.  In the middle of the ridge is a square clock tower with a baroque dome. The early baroque main portal has a capstone, engraved with the year 1677.

The water-village Blauenthal, along with Wolfsgrün and Neidhardtsthal, were incorporated to Eibenstock on 01.01.1994.

On the “Mulderadweg” hike and bike trail, as well as on the “Karlsroute” trail that leads to Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) in the Czech Rep., Blauenthal is presently a popular destination for cyclists.

The Blauenthal waterfall is on the outskirts, close to the “Karlsroute” trail, which is the largest waterfall in Saxony. It is fed by a man-made canal that was built around 100 years ago, for the purpose of bringing water to operate a pulp mill. The water plunges 30 meters down over the rocks. In winter the bizarre ice formations on the waterfall attract ice climbers.