Few ruins in Germany are as quietly impressive as Chorin. The monastery was founded in the late thirteenth century by Cistercian monks, who moved here from a less suitable site nearby, and they built it in the red brick that is the signature of north German Gothic. The west gable is a masterpiece, a tall wall of brick with delicate tracery, blind windows and slender pinnacles, standing against the sky. The roofless church, the cloister and the remaining monastic buildings sit beside a small lake, the Amtssee, and the setting among woods and meadows feels remote even though Berlin is only an hour away.
After the Reformation, the monastery was dissolved and decayed, serving as a quarry and farm. In the nineteenth century, Karl Friedrich Schinkel and others helped to save what was left, and the ruins became a romantic landmark. Every summer the Chorin Music Summer fills the ruins with concerts, and sitting in the old church under the open sky while a quartet plays is memorable. The surrounding region is the Schorfheide-Chorin biosphere reserve, a landscape of ancient beech woods, lakes and fields, famed for its cranes, sea eagles and black storks.
For a rider, the roads around Chorin are a treat. The route from Eberswalde, about eight and a half kilometres away, climbs gently through beech forest, with the surface in generally good condition, and the lanes toward Britz and the Werbellinsee are quiet and twisting. Avenues of old trees line many stretches, and the dappled light makes it hard to read the road, so take it slowly. Wildlife is frequent, including deer and boar, and cyclists fill the roads on summer weekends. Spring and autumn are the best seasons.
Chorin village has about two and a half thousand people, a cafe near the monastery and a few small shops, but fuel is available in Eberswalde, with about forty thousand people and a full range of services. Parking by the monastery is straightforward, and the entry fee is modest. The cafe serves cake and coffee, and a walk around the lake takes half an hour. Allow time to sit in the cloister and listen to the quiet.