On the official state water map the Brigach begins, however, at a height of about 925 m above sea level (NHN) somewhat below a small pond near this farm in the borough of Sankt Georgen im Schwarzwald.

[5] The Brigach flows initially along a gently descending course and roughly east-north-east through the landscape of the Black Forest, which consists here of open fields across the width of the valley with woods on the accompanying heights, before reaching the first large village of Sankt Georgen.

In Sankt Georgen, the river is already 100 metres below the surrounding highland and it now swings slowly around the woods of the Röhlinswald on the right to head southeast through a typical high Black Forest landscape of scattered settlements.

By the place where the Brigach is joined from the WNW by its first long tributary, the Röhlinsbach, it leaves the parish of Sankt Georgen and enters a valley called the Groppertal, a protected landscape about half a square kilometre in area, which lies within the municipality of Unterkirnach and the town of Villingen-Schwenningen.

Shortly thereafter, the Brigach leaves the Black Forest behind, about halfway along its course, and enters the much flatter Baar region near Villingen, which is dominated by open countryside, with larger settlements than in its upper reaches.

Once again, the valley passes through wooded hills, the river develops meanders and then swings left on an easterly course through the urban part of the borough.

Beyond the long southwestern perimeter lies the considerably larger catchment (291.5 km2[6]) of the right-hand Danube tributary, the Breg.