AT A GLANCE
Why go?
The Zigeunerfelsen is a moss-clad sandstone outcrop on the forested flank above Neustadt an der Weinstraße, and its top rock has been fitted out as a secured viewing platform. From here the view runs out over the Speyerbach valley and the city's Schöntal quarter to the wooded Wolfsberg ridge, where Wolfsburg castle sits facing the lookout. It is one of the signature stops on the Pfälzer Weinsteig, the long-distance trail that threads the edge of the Palatinate Forest above the wine route.↗
Reached only on foot and open all year, the rocks reward a short climb from the city or a detour on a longer hike, and the jumble of boulders and shallow caves below the platform gives the stop a playful, exploratory feel that lingers in hikers' reviews. For a quick forest panorama over the wine country, it is one of the most satisfying viewpoints directly above Neustadt.↗
A rock-built balcony over the wine country
Officially a protected natural monument (ND-7316-030), the Zigeunerfelsen is a roughly ten-metre-high formation of Palatinate sandstone that crowns the northern spur of the Nollenkopf at about 350 metres, on Neustadt's own municipal ground within the Pfälzerwald. The highest boulder has been made into a safe, fixed lookout, and the surrounding trees have been deliberately thinned so that the view stays open.
