Naumburg Cathedral and Hainich

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Naumburg Cathedral

   The twelve figures in the west choir of Naumburg Cathedral are among the most famous sculptures of the Middle Ages, and once you have seen them, you understand why. Carved around the middle of the thirteenth century by an unknown artist known as the Naumburg Master, they represent the founders and benefactors of the cathedral, noblemen and noblewomen who had died two centuries earlier, but they look like real people, with individual faces, expressions and gestures. The most famous is Uta, the wife of Margrave Ekkehard, standing with her cloak drawn up to her face, cool and enigmatic, who has become an icon of German art. The cathedral, with its Romanesque and Gothic architecture and its rich sculpture, was listed by UNESCO in 2018.

   Read the complete Naumburg Cathedral write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Naumburg Cathedral is where the day begins. Next is The House Am Horn.

2. 2. The House Am Horn

   Weimar has a way of making people feel they have walked into a library. Goethe and Schiller lived and worked here, Bach and Liszt played here, and in 1919 the German National Assembly met in the town to write the constitution of the Weimar Republic. That same year Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in Weimar, merging the old art school and the school of applied arts into something new. The Haus Am Horn, built in 1923 for the school's first big exhibition, is the only Bauhaus building that was actually erected in Weimar itself.

   Read the complete The House Am Horn write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   The House Am Horn comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mikveh.

3. 3. Mikveh

   In 2007, during construction work near the Krämerbrücke in Erfurt, archaeologists uncovered a medieval ritual bath, a mikveh, beside the river Gera, which had been forgotten for centuries. It dates from the thirteenth century and was used by the city's Jewish community until the pogrom of 1349, when the community was destroyed during the panic of the Black Death. It is now protected and can be visited on guided tours. Together with the Old Synagogue and the Stone House, a medieval residence, the mikveh forms the Jewish-Medieval Heritage of Erfurt, listed by UNESCO in 2023.

   Read the complete Mikveh write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 74 km into the recorded legs you reach Mikveh. Next is Hainich.

4. 4. Hainich

   Hainich is a long, low ridge of beech forest in the middle of Germany, and it has the distinction of being one of the few places in Europe where beech trees have been left to grow old. The national park, established in 1997, covers a large part of the ridge, and its oldest stands are part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and other Regions of Europe, a UNESCO listing. You notice the difference at once: tall, straight silver trunks, massive fallen logs covered in fungi, and a forest floor that smells of mould and mushrooms.

   Read the complete Hainich write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Hainich, about halfway. Next is back through Mikveh.

5. 5. back through Mikveh

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Mikveh write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Mikveh sits at 185 km, about halfway. Next is back through The House Am Horn.

6. 6. back through The House Am Horn

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete The House Am Horn write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through The House Am Horn comes up about 237 km into the recorded legs. Next is Naumburg Cathedral.

7. 7. Naumburg Cathedral

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Naumburg Cathedral write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Naumburg Cathedral closes the day.