Speyer Cathedral and Ruine Altenmuster

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Speyer Cathedral

   Some buildings impress you with height, others with mass. Speyer Cathedral does it with both, rising from the left bank of the Rhine with six towers and a long, rhythmic nave of red sandstone. It was begun around 1030 by the emperor Conrad II, the first of the Salian dynasty, and is generally considered the largest surviving Romanesque church in the world. Its crypt, a forest of sturdy columns and striped arches, holds the tombs of several emperors and kings, which tells you how central this town once was to the Holy Roman Empire.

   Read the complete Speyer Cathedral write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Speyer Cathedral is where the day begins. Next is Old Jewish Cemetery Worms.

2. 2. Old Jewish Cemetery Worms

   The Heiliger Sand in Worms is the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe, with gravestones going back to the eleventh century. Weathered sandstone slabs lean at angles among the grass and trees, carved with Hebrew inscriptions, some barely legible after nearly a thousand years. Pebbles and small notes lie on many of them, left by visitors as a sign of remembrance, especially on the grave of Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, a great scholar of the thirteenth century who died in captivity. Together with the synagogue and ritual bath of Worms and the Jewish sites of Speyer and Mainz, the cemetery forms the ShUM Sites, listed by UNESCO in 2021, recognising the Rhineland communities that shaped Ashkenazi Jewish culture in the Middle Ages.

   Read the complete Old Jewish Cemetery Worms write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Old Jewish Cemetery Worms comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Exhibition grounds 1904.

3. 3. Exhibition grounds 1904

   In 1899, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse invited a group of young artists and architects to Darmstadt and gave them a hill to build on. The Mathildenhöhe became an artists' colony and a showcase for Jugendstil, the German Art Nouveau, with studios, houses and exhibitions designed as total works of art, down to the cutlery. Behind it lay a simple idea: that art should shape everyday life, from the house to the chair to the wallpaper. The exhibitions of 1901, 1904, 1908 and 1914 drew visitors from all over Europe, and the ensemble was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2021.

   Read the complete Exhibition grounds 1904 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 92 km into the recorded legs you reach Exhibition grounds 1904. Next is Ruine Altenmuster.

4. 4. Ruine Altenmuster

   Lorsch Abbey, founded in the eighth century, became one of the most powerful monasteries of the Carolingian empire, with vast estates, a famous library and the patronage of Charlemagne himself. Its first home, however, was not on the site of the later abbey, but a short distance away, on an island in the Weschnitz river, a place known as Altenmünster, the old minster. The ruins of that first foundation, a few low walls in a meadow, are a quiet counterpoint to the abbey's most famous building, the Torhalle, a gatehouse with a façade of red and white stone panels, one of the few surviving examples of Carolingian architecture. The abbey and Altenmünster together have been on the UNESCO list since 1991.

   Read the complete Ruine Altenmuster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Ruine Altenmuster, about halfway. Next is back through Exhibition grounds 1904.

5. 5. back through Exhibition grounds 1904

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Exhibition grounds 1904 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Exhibition grounds 1904 sits at 172 km, about halfway. Next is back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms.

6. 6. back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Old Jewish Cemetery Worms write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Old Jewish Cemetery Worms comes up about 202 km into the recorded legs. Next is Speyer Cathedral.

7. 7. Speyer Cathedral

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Speyer Cathedral write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Speyer Cathedral closes the day.