Why this ride
86 km from Wittenberg to Wittenberg, about 1 h 52 of riding. It goes by way of Parks of Wörlitz, Historical Graveyard Dessau and back through Parks of Wörlitz.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Luther Hall and Historical Graveyard Dessau
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 86 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 52
- 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Luther Hall
Wittenberg's Luther Hall is a big, plain, slightly forbidding building, and that is part of its charm. It began as the Augustinian monastery where Martin Luther lived as a friar, and after the Reformation it became his family home, given to him and to his wife Katharina von Bora, a former nun who ran the household with considerable firmness. You can picture a crowded place: students at the table, guests, children, a brewery's worth of hospitality. Luther taught at the university here, preached in the town church, and, according to tradition, nailed his ninety-five theses to the door of the Castle Church in 1517. Wittenberg thus became one of the places where the modern world was argued into being.
Read the complete Luther Hall write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Luther Hall is where the day begins. Next is Parks of Wörlitz.
2. Parks of Wörlitz
Prince Leopold III Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau, a ruler of a small German state in the late eighteenth century, came back from travels in England and Italy and decided to turn his whole principality into a garden. The result, the Garden Realm of Dessau-Wörlitz, is now a World Heritage Site, and the parks of Wörlitz are its heart: an English landscape garden laid out around a lake fed by the Elbe, with canals, bridges, temples, a synagogue built as a temple of tolerance, and the palace at Wörlitz, designed by Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff and regarded as one of the first neoclassical buildings in Germany.
Read the complete Parks of Wörlitz write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Parks of Wörlitz comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historical Graveyard Dessau.
3. Historical Graveyard Dessau
Dessau is best known for the Bauhaus, but the city's older story is one of parks and princes. The Historical Graveyard, laid out in the Enlightenment spirit of the late eighteenth century, was designed as a landscape garden as much as a burial ground, with winding paths, old trees and monuments set among greenery. Prince Leopold III Friedrich Franz of Anhalt-Dessau, who created the nearby Garden Realm of Dessau-Wörlitz, believed that gardens could educate and uplift, and the cemetery follows the same idea: a place to walk and reflect.
Read the complete Historical Graveyard Dessau write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 43 km into the recorded legs you reach Historical Graveyard Dessau. Next is back through Parks of Wörlitz.
4. back through Parks of Wörlitz
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Parks of Wörlitz write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Parks of Wörlitz, late in the day. Next is Luther Hall.
5. Luther Hall
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Luther Hall write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Luther Hall. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Luther Hall to Parks of Wörlitz
Luther Hall → Parks of Wörlitz is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Parks of Wörlitz to Historical Graveyard Dessau
Parks of Wörlitz → Historical Graveyard Dessau is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historical Graveyard Dessau to back through Parks of Wörlitz
Historical Graveyard Dessau → back through Parks of Wörlitz is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Parks of Wörlitz to Luther Hall
back through Parks of Wörlitz → Luther Hall is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.