Barbian Waterfalls and Three Churches Loop

This tour combines the visit to the historical Dreikirchen (three small nested churches, the church of Saint Gertraud, Saint Nikolaus, and Saint Magdalena) high above the sunny Barbian village with the spectacular descent alongside the Barbian waterfalls. It ends near the leaning bell tower of the Barbian parish church, more slanting than the tower of Pisa.

Today I would like to address the makers of Komoot – with praise and criticism. First of all, praise: Without you, many of us, including myself, would not find many beautiful corners of our nature at all or would only find them with difficulty. A big thank you for that! But I have to say to you about one or two tours: It would be better not to set the bar too low, but to raise the bar a little higher. You classified the tour I did today as medium difficulty. That is far from correct! For the tour to the upper Barbian waterfalls, the level “difficult” is the right approach for me and everyone I met today. But nonetheless, it is a breathtaking tour – for those who are well trained. And please don’t forget that very good footwear is absolutely necessary.

Really beautiful tour. Relatively demanding. Requires surefootedness, strength and fitness.

First we went to the suspension bridge, which wasn't very spectacular, but I like suspension bridges 🤗 because of the detour we then took a different route to the waterfalls. There are 3 stages, the lower, the middle and the upper. In the lower part there is very little water, in the middle there were even a lot of bathers, as was the case in the upper area. All in all though, it was still a nice tour. I would change one thing and give you a tip: after the round hotel, you walk a bit down the road and there is a turnoff to the left which you should take and then you can walk a lovely forest passage almost to the bottom, although it is a bit longer. Unfortunately we walked the street passage but we also passed the 3er Kirche (3 churches in one building).

The tour to the Barbian Waterfalls (86m in free fall) and Dreikirchen is ideal if the visibility is not ideal. Since you spend a lot of time in the forest, the tour is also recommended for hot days. Starting from Barbian, it's a long, very steep climb, but on well-secured and well-prepared paths (👍 - praise) up to the various waterfall sections. Great nature experiences and interesting insights await. At the upper fall, the rounded drainage channels created by water forces over thousands of years are impressive. We experienced Bad Dreikirchen as absolutely bizarre. There are no documented explanations as to the reason why three small, fully equipped cars are packed together. On the way to Barbian we passed the “stadium”. A pitch with finely maintained lawn where even the youngsters were allowed to train. Respect. And last but not least, the leaning church tower of Barbian, whose inclination can certainly keep up with the leaning tower of Pisa. However, the Barbians have put the pointed church tower roof back into place. Correct, the South Tyroleans.

From Barbian, parking lot Sportzone Föhrwald, over lower water and upper waterfall to Briol and over three churches back to the parking lot.

Great varied tour. We liked it very much. But you have to plan more time than indicated. There are so many beautiful places where you want to linger a while. You should calculate 6 hours.

A beautiful round trip. The waterfall is awesome!