Ilsestone

On the famous ascent to the Brocken through the Ilse Valley you're rarely alone. (11 kilometres, 3–4 hours, approx. 890 metres of elevation) If you're looking for a sporting challenge, you can also try the Eselsstieg by bike. It's a narrow single trail 1.5 kilometres long and with up to 100 metres of elevation gain, starting at the inn by the Ilsestein and ending not far from the Crola Painter’s View.

Georg Heinrich Crola (1804–1879) and his wife Elise Crola (1809–1878) turned Ilsenburg into a truly special painters’ village during the nearly 40 years they lived and worked here. In his memoirs, the artist devoted an entire section to his first enthusiasm for the Ilse Valley at the age of 24, but also criticised the forestry practices that aimed only for quick success. If you want to learn more about the Crolas, take a look at Georg Heinrich’s view from Agnesberg of Wernigerode Castle or Elise Crola’s depiction of Drübeck Monastery Church.

In 1855, August Ey included this famous legend in his ‘Guide through the Harz’: “To make this already interesting place even more beautiful, a legend has grown around the rocky summit of the Ilsenstein and tells the marvellous tale that once a castle stood here, the residence of King Ilsan and his daughter, the wonderfully beautiful Princess Ilse; but once disaster struck the castle, and a terrible earthquake tore apart the mountains, which at that time still formed one whole, not yet separated by the river valley as they are now, and buried the castle with all its inhabitants and treasures deep below. There, in the depths, inside the mountain, the wide halls of that castle still stretch out, there lie still today immeasurable treasures of silver, gold, and precious stones, and there still wanders, in eternal, undying beauty, Ilse, the wondrous royal child. From time to time she leaves her underground palace to stroll through the valley and along the little river that bears her name, or bathes her snow-white body in the cool waves, or sits upon the mossy rocks around which the foaming river rushes, wearing a sparkling golden crown upon her head, her beautiful, shining blonde hair flowing down her charming figure to the clear, shimmering waters. But she may stay there only until dawn. The first ray of sunlight that kisses the peaks of the mountains finds her gone, and so it has been granted to only a few lucky ones to see her and rejoice in her grace.” Incidentally, in 1958, the castle on the Ilsenstein was actually discovered.

In 1828, Georg Heinrich Crola had “discovered” the Ilse Valley for himself, and in 1840 he moved to Ilsenburg. Thus, with detailed knowledge and deep connection, he wrote in his memoirs in 1848: “This valley, with its strong, dark forests rustled through by the swift Ilse, the rugged, fantastically shaped Ilsestein, the surrounding picturesque heaps of stones and boulders covered with beautiful mosses reaching up towards the Blocksberg, the numerous waterfalls with their varied peaks and mountain heights, then the once-existing, perhaps centuries-old forest paths, worn down between ravines and rocks, leading over fragile log bridges, sometimes through the darkness of the forest, sometimes across clearings, along which here and there smoking charcoal kilns lay — all these impressions back then, through their originality, were far more striking than now, after a span of twenty years in which the progress of industry has completely changed the face of this valley. Even the forestry administration, which had meanwhile calculated that it would be more advantageous to replace the deciduous forest with conifers, since the latter are easier to cultivate and grow faster, yielding better returns through saw and board mills than beech, elm, maple and oak, which require centuries, was guilty of these damages in praiseworthy, though misguided zeal. Furthermore, the construction of a paved road, through which especially the previously hidden beauty and wildness of the Ilse Falls lost much of their charm, destroyed the valley’s original character through its general accessibility.”