CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
From Wittenberg it runs 359 km to Wittenberg; allow about 5 h 27 of riding. It goes by way of Historical Graveyard Dessau, Luther's birthplace, Collegiate Church and back through Luther's birthplace. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
37 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it — speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
91 km on Historical Graveyard Dessau → Luther's birthplace.
On 31 October 1517, according to tradition, a professor of theology named Martin Luther nailed a list of ninety five theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, challenging the sale of indulgences by the Catholic Church. Whether he actually used a hammer is debated by historians, but the theses spread rapidly across Germany and beyond, thanks to the printing press, and they sparked the Reformation, which transformed the religious, political and cultural life of Europe. The original wooden door was destroyed by fire in 1760, and in 1858 it was replaced by bronze doors bearing the text of the theses in Latin. Luther is buried inside the church, as is his friend and colleague Philipp Melanchthon.
Read the complete The Castle Church write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Castle Church is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historical Graveyard Dessau comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Read the complete Luther's birthplace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 126 km into the recorded legs you reach Luther's birthplace. Next is 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.
Read the complete Collegiate Church write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Collegiate Church, about halfway. Next is back through Luther's birthplace.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Luther's birthplace write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Luther's birthplace sits at 226 km, about halfway. Next is back through Historical Graveyard Dessau.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Historical Graveyard Dessau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Historical Graveyard Dessau comes up about 325 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Castle Church.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Castle Church write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Castle Church closes the day.
The Castle Church → Historical Graveyard Dessau is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Historical Graveyard Dessau → Luther's birthplace is 91 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Luther's birthplace → Collegiate Church is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
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 → back through Historical Graveyard Dessau is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Historical Graveyard Dessau → The Castle Church is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.