Grenzpfad Napfbergland

The scenic and relatively flat stage begins at the railway station in Langenthal, the Oberaargau region's economic centre. Marktgasse, with its cobblestones and elevated sidewalks, is well worth a short detour. They were built to channel the Langeten through the streets during floods. On the outskirts of town, you cross the animal park before the hiking trail branches off into the Thunstetterholz fir forest. White firs and spruces up to 40 metres high tower over a carpet of blueberries and an almost closed layer of moss.

After a long forest passage, you reach the brickworks, where the view opens up to the imposing former St. Urban's Abbey. It was built in Baroque and Cistercian style from 1194. The trail continues across open countryside, past well-kept individual farmsteads and over small hills towards Altbüron. The Jura heights and the nearby Alps are visible in good weather.

Soon you cross the Grosswald, and the trail descends into the Rot Valley, where you reach the valley floor of the Rottaler water meadows. They used to be widespread for field irrigation and fertilisation in Switzerland. A network of ditches has created a habitat for rare plants and animals in the meadows. Irrigation gives rise to fertile, lush green landscapes of unique beauty.

You ascend 150 metres over lush meadows. Near the ruins of Grünenberg Castle, the trail leads back into the forest. The double castle complex in Melchnau was the centre of the medieval nobility in Oberaargau. Following the coniferous forest, views of the Alps open up again. A short descent takes you to the Gondiswiler Weiher, where a nature reserve has been established around a former coal mine. After the mill, the trail continues in gentle ups and downs through small sections of forest and meadows to Huttwilberg.

Along the edge of the forest on Huttwilberg, you can enjoy the last panoramic view before descending to the stage destination at Huttwil a little later. Following a major fire in 1834, the centre of this historic country town in the lower Emmental was reconstructed in a uniform, classicist style.