Höllental (Black Forest)

The Höllental is one of the valleys in the Black Forest that cuts through the asymmetric ridgeline of mountains from its plateau-like eastern uplands and runs down its steep western escarpment.

Additionally, it could have been created as a result of repeated glaciation of the Black Forest's uplands by ice lakes that could have spilled westwards over the eroded ridgeline.

As a result, the tributaries of the Höllenbach east of the ridgeline flow initially southeast, turning almost 180° towards the northeast into the Höllental itself, a situation similar to that of the Maloja Pass in Engadin.

After the station of Hirschsprung and following the U-shaped valley with steep slopes up to 600 m high (and its four-lane road) is a section with towering cliffs up to 130 m and known as the Höllenpass ("Hell Narrows").

Not until the coach and the large bridle train of Marie Antoinette, which was to bring her to her future husband, the subsequent Louis XVI of France, had to traverse the route, was the track developed into a road.

As early as 1691, Emperor Leopold I had described the present-day Hirschsprung as die Höll ("hell", formerly also "hollow"), when he reviewed the defence of routes through the Black Forest.