Why this ride
156 km from Hildesheim to Hildesheim, about 2 h 49 of riding. On the way it passes Fagus Factory in Alfeld, Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey and back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
St Mary's Catholic Cathedral and Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 156 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 49
- 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.
Scenic road chapters
St Mary's Catholic Cathedral → Fagus Factory in Alfeld
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 28 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 32 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. St Mary's Catholic Cathedral
In the courtyard of Hildesheim Cathedral, a rose bush climbs the wall of the apse, and the legend says it has been growing there for a thousand years. The "thousand-year rose" is linked to the founding of the bishopric in 815, when, so the story goes, Emperor Louis the Pious hung a reliquary on the branches of a wild rose and found it impossible to remove, taking it as a sign to build a chapel. Whatever the truth, the rose survived the bombing of March 1945, which destroyed the cathedral and much of the old town, and sprouted again from its roots in the rubble. The cathedral and the nearby Church of St Michael were inscribed by UNESCO in 1985 for their outstanding Romanesque architecture and art.
Read the complete St Mary's Catholic Cathedral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
St Mary's Catholic Cathedral is where the day begins. Next is Fagus Factory in Alfeld.
2. Fagus Factory in Alfeld
Stand across the railway tracks and look at the Fagus works, and you are looking at one of the buildings where modern architecture started. In 1911 the shoe-last maker Carl Benscheidt hired a young Walter Gropius and his partner Adolf Meyer to design a new factory in Alfeld, in the Leine valley of Lower Saxony. They gave it walls of glass that seem to wrap around the corners with no column to hold them, a radical trick at the time, and the result was so influential that it became a UNESCO site in 2011. The best part: it is still a working factory making shoe lasts, not a museum frozen in place.
Read the complete Fagus Factory in Alfeld write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fagus Factory in Alfeld comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey.
3. 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
about 78 km into the recorded legs you reach Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey. Next is back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld.
4. back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fagus Factory in Alfeld write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld, late in the day. Next is St Mary's Catholic Cathedral.
5. St Mary's Catholic Cathedral
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete St Mary's Catholic Cathedral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at St Mary's Catholic Cathedral. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
St Mary's Catholic Cathedral to Fagus Factory in Alfeld
St Mary's Catholic Cathedral → Fagus Factory in Alfeld is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fagus Factory in Alfeld to Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey
Fagus Factory in Alfeld → Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey to back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld
Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey → back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld to St Mary's Catholic Cathedral
back through Fagus Factory in Alfeld → St Mary's Catholic Cathedral is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.