Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz and Collegiate Church
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
302 km
Riding-time estimate
4 h 59
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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 302 km round trip from Wörlitz - roughly 4 h 59 in the saddle. On the way it passes Palace Mosigkau, Luther's birthplace, Collegiate Church and back through Luther's birthplace. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Scenic road chapters
Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz → Palace Mosigkau
27 km on Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz → Palace Mosigkau.
Chapter facts
Length
27 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz
In the late eighteenth century, a small German principality decided to remake its entire landscape as a work of art. Prince Leopold III Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau, inspired by travels in England and by the ideas of the Enlightenment, created a vast network of parks, gardens, palaces and estates along the Elbe and Mulde rivers, combining beauty, education and agriculture. The result, the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz, is one of the earliest and largest landscape gardens in continental Europe, and it was listed by UNESCO in 2000.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz is where the day begins. Next is Palace Mosigkau.
2. Palace Mosigkau
Palace Mosigkau is a small Rococo palace on the edge of Dessau, in Saxony-Anhalt, and its story is that of a princess who wanted a house of her own. It was built in the middle of the eighteenth century for Anna Wilhelmine, a daughter of the Prince Leopold I of Anhalt-Dessau, known as the Old Dessauer, a military commander of the Prussian army. She did not marry, and after she died the palace became a noble ladies' foundation, a Damenstift, where unmarried women of good family could live in comfort. Its name sits within the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm, a landscape of palaces and parks created in the age of the Enlightenment, which UNESCO has listed.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Palace Mosigkau comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Luther's birthplace.
3. Luther's birthplace
Martin Luther was born in Eisleben on 10 November 1483, and by an odd twist of fate he died here too, in 1546, while on a visit to settle a dispute between the counts of Mansfeld. The house where he was born was rebuilt after a fire in the seventeenth century and became one of the first museums in Germany dedicated to a single person. Together with the house where he died and the sites in Wittenberg where he lived and taught, it forms the UNESCO site of the Luther Memorials in Eisleben and Wittenberg, listed in 1996. The museum tells the story of Luther's family, his childhood and the beginning of the Reformation, and it has been extended with modern exhibitions.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 94 km into the recorded legs you reach Luther's birthplace. Next is Collegiate Church.
4. Collegiate Church
High on a rock above Quedlinburg stands the Collegiate Church of St Servatius, a heavy Romanesque church that is one of the most important of its kind in Germany. The first church on the hill was connected to the Ottonian kings, and Henry the Fowler, the first king of the East Frankish realm in the early tenth century, was buried here. His widow Mathilda founded a convent of noblewomen on the site, which became powerful, with abbesses who were often relatives of the emperors and ran a small state of their own.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz closes the day.
Leg by leg
Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz to Palace Mosigkau
Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz → Palace Mosigkau is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Palace Mosigkau to Luther's birthplace
Palace Mosigkau → Luther's birthplace is 67 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Luther's birthplace to Collegiate Church
Luther's birthplace → Collegiate Church is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Collegiate Church to back through Luther's birthplace
Collegiate Church → back through Luther's birthplace is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Luther's birthplace to back through Palace Mosigkau
back through Luther's birthplace → back through Palace Mosigkau is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Palace Mosigkau to Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz
back through Palace Mosigkau → Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.