The Bergbaulehrpfad Bockwa is a fascinating open-air mining history trail winding through the former coal mining district of Zwickau. It's a walk through a landscape literally shaped and sunken by centuries of coal extraction, offering a rare glimpse into industrial heritage rather than typical mountain scenery.

The route is about 2.2 km long and marked with a white square crossed diagonally by a green band (colour #38a169). It starts near the Matthäuskirche, a church badly damaged by mining subsidence, then passes along the old Kohlenstraße, the Dampfmühlenschacht, ventilation and water-management shafts (Wasserhaltungsschächte I and II), the allotment gardens 'Am Felsen' with remnants of old mine shafts, the foreman's house at Fritscheschacht, the embankment of the former Bockwa coal railway, and the Junger Wolfgang colliery site. The trail ends at the Bockwaer Senke, a subsidence basin created by mining, now protected from flooding by a pumping station.

Difficulty and terrain

• Easy trail suitable for the whole family - flat ground with no technical difficulty
• Paths and tracks through residential areas, gardens and industrial remains

Practical information

• The lowest point (around 263 m) is near Schneeberger Straße by the Matthäuskirche
• The highest point (around 282 m) is station No. 12
• The trail connects to the neighboring Bergbaulehrpfad Schedewitz-Oberhohndorf
• Information boards along the route are made of stainless steel, replacing earlier ones destroyed by vandalism

Without constant pumping, the entire Bockwaer Senke would flood into a lake - a striking, living example of the so-called eternal costs left behind by centuries of coal mining.