Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey and Wartburg Castle

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 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.

   Read the complete Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   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 Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe.

2. 2. Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe

   There is a giant on the hill above Kassel, and he has been there since the early eighteenth century. The Hercules statue, a copper figure on top of an octagonal structure and a huge stepped pyramid, crowns the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, which the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel began laying out around 1700 as a statement of his power. Below it, a long cascade of steps and basins sends water tumbling down the hillside, and on certain afternoons from May to early October the water features run for the public in a spectacle that takes well over an hour to reach the bottom. UNESCO listed the park in 2013, and it remains one of the largest hillside parks in Europe.

   Read the complete Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe comes up about 82 km into the recorded legs. Next is Wartburg Castle.

3. 3. Wartburg Castle

   Martin Luther spent ten months of his life in a small room in the Wartburg, and it changed the German language. In 1521, after he had refused to recant at the Diet of Worms, his protector, the Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony, had him seized on the road and secretly taken to the castle above Eisenach, where he lived in hiding under the name of Junker Jörg, a knight. There, in a few weeks, he translated the New Testament from Greek into German, a version that helped fix the written language and spread Reformation ideas. The room, with its panelled walls and a stove, is the heart of the castle.

   Read the complete Wartburg Castle write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 187 km into the recorded legs you reach Wartburg Castle. Next is back through Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe.

4. 4. back through Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, late in the day. Next is Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey.

5. 5. Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey. That is the ride.