Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey and St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
287 km
Riding-time estimate
5 h 24
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Höxter it runs 287 km to Höxter; allow about 5 h 24 of riding. It goes by way of Fagus Factory in Alfeld, St Mary's Catholic Cathedral, St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc and back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Scenic road chapters
Fagus Factory in Alfeld → St Mary's Catholic Cathedral
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 28 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
Length
33 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey
Corvey sits in a loop of the Weser just outside Höxter, a baroque abbey palace set among meadows with the wooded hills of the Solling and the Weser Uplands closing in around it. The baroque part is handsome but not why people come. Hidden behind it, forming the entrance to the church, is a westwork built between 873 and 885, and it is one of the very few Carolingian buildings in the world still standing more or less as it was built.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey is where the day begins. Next is Fagus Factory in Alfeld.
2. Fagus Factory in Alfeld
Stand across the railway tracks and look at the Fagus works, and you are looking at one of the buildings where modern architecture started. In 1911 the shoe-last maker Carl Benscheidt hired a young Walter Gropius and his partner Adolf Meyer to design a new factory in Alfeld, in the Leine valley of Lower Saxony. They gave it walls of glass that seem to wrap around the corners with no column to hold them, a radical trick at the time, and the result was so influential that it became a UNESCO site in 2011. The best part: it is still a working factory making shoe lasts, not a museum frozen in place.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fagus Factory in Alfeld comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. Next is St Mary's Catholic Cathedral.
3. St Mary's Catholic Cathedral
In the courtyard of Hildesheim Cathedral, a rose bush climbs the wall of the apse, and the legend says it has been growing there for a thousand years. The "thousand-year rose" is linked to the founding of the bishopric in 815, when, so the story goes, Emperor Louis the Pious hung a reliquary on the branches of a wild rose and found it impossible to remove, taking it as a sign to build a chapel. Whatever the truth, the rose survived the bombing of March 1945, which destroyed the cathedral and much of the old town, and sprouted again from its roots in the rubble. The cathedral and the nearby Church of St Michael were inscribed by UNESCO in 1985 for their outstanding Romanesque architecture and art.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fagus Factory in Alfeld, about halfway. Next is St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc.
5. St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc
Hildesheim is a town that was destroyed and put back together. On 22 March 1945, bombers flattened most of the old town, and the cathedral and the church of St Michael were left as burnt shells. After the war, the people rebuilt them, stone by stone, and both are now UNESCO World Heritage, listed in 1985. They are among the finest examples of Ottonian architecture in Europe, from the years around the year 1000.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 287 km.
Leg by leg
Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey to Fagus Factory in Alfeld
Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey → Fagus Factory in Alfeld is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fagus Factory in Alfeld to St Mary's Catholic Cathedral
Fagus Factory in Alfeld → St Mary's Catholic Cathedral is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
St Mary's Catholic Cathedral to Fagus Factory in Alfeld
St Mary's Catholic Cathedral → Fagus Factory in Alfeld is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fagus Factory in Alfeld to St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc
Fagus Factory in Alfeld → St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc to back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld
St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc → back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld to back through St Mary's Catholic Cathedral
back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld → back through St Mary's Catholic Cathedral is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through St Mary's Catholic Cathedral to back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld
back through St Mary's Catholic Cathedral → back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld to Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey
back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld → Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.