The narrow valley not far from Ernzen, which bears the unusual name "Schweineställe" (pigsties), is lined with impressive sandstone cliffs. There is an enchanted atmosphere here.

Even today, it is still visible on the rock faces that the gorge was once used as a quarry, and the cross carved into the rock at the lower entrance to the gorge is a reminder of a quarryman who died in an accident in 1733. It is called the "Jegerkreuz" after Friedrich Anton Jeger. Incidentally, workers from Ernzen, who were employed in the Weilerbach ironworks, took the path through this gorge until the end of the 1950s.

Not far from the Jeger cross, two very relaxed pigs are lolling on the ground. They are the work of sculptor Roland Michel and naturally refer to the name of the gorge. "Pigsties" and "Schweigestelle" - both names have been handed down, and both could mean the same thing: In earlier times, pig herders drove their herds into the woods where they could eat acorns and beechnuts. The gorge with its narrow, easily closable entrances was possibly a favourite grazing area, a "pigsty" so to speak. And "Sweiga" means pasture in Old High German, "stal" means place. So the "Schweigestelle" would have been a cattle pasture.

But the gorge harbours even more secrets: Further up, the inscription ARTIONI BIBER is deeply chiselled in large letters into a protruding rock face to the side of the path. Artio is the name of a Celtic hunting goddess in the shape of a bear. Did a local man named Biber fulfil his vow to Artio here in Roman times - perhaps because he had good hunting luck or because Artio protected him from an angry she-bear? Some believe that the inscription is much younger, but this cannot be proven. What is undoubtedly a genuine Roman inscription is only faintly visible to the left of Artio's name: The name Tertius Tertinus Ursulus is inscribed beneath an incised hammer, the symbol of the Roman forest god Silvanus. Ursulus, that's the "little bear" - a nice nickname...