UMGEBUNGSENTDECKER
TRAVEL IMPRESSIONS OF AN ART AND HISTORY LOVER
and my experiences as a teacher in China
The Hellweg and the Ruhr area in the Middle Ages
CONTENT
• Ruhr area and the Middle Ages?
• From Rome and Aix-la-Chapelle
• Essen with Kettwig, Werden, Rellinghausen
The Hellweg does not end with the Ruhr area - it continues to the east:
Ruhr area and the Middle Ages?
When I moved to the Ruhr area a few years ago, I didn't know much about the region - industry, coal, steel - that's it!
Well, I had also heard about the diverse cultural landscape, the many universities, that it is greener here than you think and that the times of heavy industry are over and you can only see them in well-renovated, old production facilities that are now closed Museums have become.
But the fact that there was a time before industrialization is masked by the cliché that clings to the region. Hardly anyone associates the Ruhr area with the Middle Ages.
You can't blame anyone for it, because the cities don't look like Dinkelsbühl or Rothenburg. And who thinks of Dortmund, for example, of a free imperial and Hanseatic city of considerable size with a well-fortified city wall? Hardly any - but that was exactly what Dortmund was.
After moving here, I went on excursions to get to know the area, found relics of the Middle Ages, was impressed by their art-historical importance and wanted to know more.
After the first impressions, research followed, because some things are overlooked and often the medieval traces are in a rather built-up environment in which they eke out their anachronistic existence. In everyday life you run past it in a hurry and there is hardly any kind of marketing for the Middle Ages in this region; In the Ruhr area marketing, the focus is on industrial culture. While shopping in Essen between Limbecker Platz and the main train station, for example, I had no idea that I was walking right past one of the most important cathedral treasures in Germany and that the art on display there played in the champions league of medieval art - and I found out that I was not alone with this ignorance am
I asked myself two questions: firstly, why these things are only known to a few and secondly, why there is such an important cathedral treasure in Essen that can rival Aachen, Cologne, Quedlinburg etc. and even overshadows these treasures?
At some point, a red thread emerged for me that tied the region together in the Middle Ages: the Westphalian Hellweg - a very old street on which the cities of the Ruhr area emerged more than 1200 years ago. This route was a trade route, an important route in the Christianization of Germania and also Denmark and Sweden, an important axis in the emergence of the Holy Roman Empire and the German East Settlement, a military route, a pilgrimage route, a route on which the kings in the Middle Ages traveled between the Rhine and Saxony. This list alone makes it clear: The Hellweg played a role in world politics at that time.
In the following, this road is a kind of guide, an axis in the search for the Middle Ages in this region.
The cornerstones of this tension range from Aachen to Corvey and from Charlemagne to Ludwig the Pious.
Was ist der Hellweg?
Bei meinen Ausflügen durch das Ruhrgebiet, die Soester Börde und weiter Richtung Osten, begegnete mir die Bezeichnung "Hellweg" in allen Varianten und der Name lebt.
What is the Hellweg?
When I drove through the Ruhr area, the Soester Börde and then further east, I came across the name "Hellweg" in all its variations and the name lives on.
The route is about 5000 years old and runs fairly straight from west to east.
But early history should not be of interest here; Christianization will be exciting for the Ruhr area. First of all, from the 9th century onwards, the Franks founded imperial and royal courts on Hellweg, which became the nucleus of later cities. These farms were always a distance apart that an army could cover in a day, which corresponded to a distance of between 15-30 kilometers. Duisburg, Mülheim, Essen, Bochum, Dortmund and beyond the Ruhr area Werl, Soest, Paderborn, Corvey etc. owe their existence to the farms along the way.
They are lined up like on a string and have little space between them. In the west of the route between Duisburg and Dortmund, the small distance meant that the cities merged with one another during industrialization until their city limits were barely noticeable and they grew together to form the Ruhr area.
Nowadays the A40, the Ruhrschnellweg, has taken over the function of the Hellweg, connecting the cities almost in a straight line from east to west. However, the motorway is not on the route of the old road, because this always leads through the center of the city, often also through the pedestrian zones.
During my trip, I wanted to drive on the historic Hellweg as often as possible, so I left the motorway on the left.
If the whole prehistory with the Romans, Christianization, Charlemagne etc. is too boring, click HERE . Then you get directly to the beginning of the Hellweg in Duisburg.
The Roman Empire and Christianity
Let's start at the very west, because civilization came from the west from a Germanic perspective. The Romans had founded their cities on the left bank of the Rhine, i.e. west of the Rhine - Cologne, Mainz, Xanten, Trier, etc.
Christianity becomes the state religion of Rome
After Christianity became the state religion in 380 AD under the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine, the entire empire became Christian and some of the Roman cities became bishops. The infrastructure and administration of the Romans were conducive to the spread of Christianity. What sounds like an antagonism to some - here the Roman Empire, there Christianity - was no longer a contradiction in late antiquity, at least since Constantine. Rome became Christian and the Christians were Roman.
Germania initially remained unconquered and pagan
East of the Rhine was Germania, which did not belong to Roman territory, consequently did not have the Roman state religion and was therefore not Christian. Since the Varus Battle in 9 AD, which ended in a devastating defeat for the Romans, the Romans had refrained from attempting to conquer Germania as a precaution.
Between 370 and 570 people migrated across the West.
When the Franconian people developed their own identity is uncertain, but in the 8th century Charlemagne, the most famous and most important Frankish king, appeared on the world stage. He was the first Western European to be crowned Emperor of the Roman Empire. This act happened on Christmas Day in the year 800 and was performed by the Pope in Rome.
During his reign, Karl achieved what the ancient Romans could not, he conquered Germania as far as the Elbe and Saale
The Aachen Cathedral
Aachen was Karl's favorite Palatinate and he had it expanded accordingly. The Palatine Chapel was an expression of his claim to power; it is based on the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna and on Byzantine architecture. The octagonal ("octagonal") building, which was built under Charles' reign, is the central part of today's cathedral. Today it has a dome-like roof that looks like a lemon squeezer from the outside. The high tower to the west of it (the westwork) was also built in Charles's time, but both structures initially looked different than they do today: the westwork was raised, got the pointed tower and the octagon did not have this dome-like roof. In general, some things have been added to the cathedral over the centuries - the Gothic choir, baroque chapels, etc.
Aachen Cathedral
The interior of the octagon is divided into three floors (zones), which are closed in the first and third zones by round arches and thus show a continuity of ancient Roman architecture. In each of the eight sides of the octagon, two Roman columns were inserted in the second and third zone, a total of 32 columns that were imported from Rome and show Charles's Roman imperial claim. They have no structural function, they only serve as decoration or as a demonstration of power. Napoleon had them stolen and brought to Paris in the 19th century - also for imperial reasons. Some columns were later returned, others stayed in Paris because they had been installed in the Louvre with a structural function; they were replaced by replicas in Aachen. The mosaic under the dome was already in the cathedral in Charles's time. The Barbarossa chandelier was added much later by the Staufer Emperor Friedrich I. The mosaic and the chandelier as well as the conception of a central building with two loft-like floors give the cathedral a certain Byzantine effect.
You can feel a touch of the Orient in Aachen Cathedral.
Aachen Cathedral
The photo below shows the throne on which the German kings were crowned before they traveled on to Rome to be crowned emperor by the Pope. The throne is strikingly plain and uncomfortable. Its stone slabs come from holy Jerusalem.
Der Thron auf der Empore des Doms. Hier wurden die deutschen Könige gekrönt. Nach der Krönungszeremonie ging es weiter nach Rom, wo man zum Römischen Kaiser durch den Papst gekrönt wurde. Der Thron sieht schlicht aus, um die Demut vor Gott zu symbolisieren.
Charlemagne
Karl is considered to be one of the most important rulers in the West. His Frankish empire brought stability, which he used to revitalize some Roman achievements. He is considered to be the founder of the Carolingian Renaissance, the revival of Roman culture. Education and architecture played a key role in this. The Aachen Cathedral is the best preserved example in the field of architecture. At that time, education was not to be understood in today's democratic sense - free of charge and for everyone - but it was a courtly spiritual education exclusively for the upper class, which was taught in monasteries and universities. This also included the introduction of the Carolingian minuscule, a unified script from which our today's small Latin letters emerged.
Karl conquers Saxony and expands Christianity to the east.
Karl wanted to Christianize Germania and to do this he first had to conquer it and subjugate pagan peoples. He brought Christianity to the east by waging wars against the Teutons, in which he was successful. The Saxon tribe was particularly stubborn and unruly, but in the Saxon Wars, which went down in history as the most important and protracted wars during Charles's reign, Charles won. Incidentally, the Saxons lived in the area of Westphalia, North Hesse and Lower Saxony as well as in East Westphalia, i.e. the part of Saxony-Anhalt that extends to the Elbe. The Saxony we are talking about in no way has anything to do with today's state of Saxony. (If you want to know more about old Saxony, click HERE , then you come to the time of Heinrich the Lion, Duke of Saxony, whose duchy roughly marks the limits of the time around Charlemagne.)
By the way, Karl's opponent in the Saxon Wars was the Saxon King Widukind (also called Wittekind), from whom the nickname Wittekindsland for the city of Herford is derived, near which the Widukind Museum is located in the city of Enger.
What does all this have to do with the Ruhr area?
The territory of the Saxons extended far to the west. It reached almost as far as the Rhine and, as I said, it was Karl who used the Hellweg to penetrate it towards Germania, to Old Saxony, with the spiritual goal of spreading Christianity, but also quite secularly, around the territory enlarge. The Hellweg bores straight into Saxony and paved the way for Christianity with weapons.
The fortress in Mühlheim an der Ruhr goes back to the Carolingians, construction details of the Essen cathedral are based on the Aachen cathedral. Königshöfe and Reichshöfe in Duisburg, Bochum etc. were founded by Karl.
Duisburg, the beginning of the Hellweg
At the beginning of the Hellweg in Duisburg, you have no idea that you are standing on terrain that was used in the early Middle Ages. Street names in the old town such as Sonnenwall, Kuhlenwall, Springwall, Burgplatz, Flachsmarkt, Alter Markt, Abteistraße, Karmelplatz, Schwanentor and Kuhtor are still reminiscent of this, but the term Altstadt is somewhat misleading for those who imagine a place with historical buildings. There is not a single building that is somehow reminiscent of the Middle Ages. There are only pieces of the old city wall, e.g. on Springwall and Am alten Wehrgang.
The former city wall with the Koblenz tower on the street "Am alten Wehrgang" lay directly on the banks of the Rhine in the Middle Ages. After the course of the Rhine changed about 1000 years ago, only one arm of the Rhine remained, which became an inland port.
Illustration by Roger Mayrock, on the information board for "Duisburg Harbor in the Middle Ages", published by the city of Duisburg, the lower monument protection authority and the city archaeology
The banks of the Rhine in front of Duisburg's city walls must have looked like the illustration above in the Middle Ages.
Today, the arm of the Rhine is the inner harbor of Duisburg , an area with many restaurants, modern office buildings and museums, old industrial buildings such as mills, warehouses and cranes, which were deliberately left standing as relics of their former use.
A few meters further, on Calaisplatz at the Schwanentor, you can find the last remains of the medieval city fortifications. Port operations could be controlled from this tower.
Next to the tower was the Schwanentor, a wide gate tower with a kennel in front. This used to be the entrance to the Rhine port.
Today a bridge from the 1950s leads from there over the inland port.
Die Schwanentorbrücke, ein Bauwerk der 50er Jahre
The Franconian royal court was where the town hall is today. The Salvator Church was built in the high Middle Ages on the spot where the chapel of the royal court stood. Duisburg's old town was located directly on the Rhine, which changed its course around 1000 years ago, meaning that the city was only connected to the river by an arm of the old Rhine.
Duisburg, the beginning of the Hellweg
The beginning of the Hellweg in Duisburg gives no indication that you are standing on terrain that was used in the early Middle Ages. Street names in the old town such as Sonnenwall, Kuhlenwall, Springwall, Burgplatz, Flachsmarkt, Alter Markt, Abteistraße, Karmelplatz, Schwanentor and Kuhtor are still reminiscent of this. The term old town is a bit misleading for those who think of it as a place with historical buildings. There is not a single building that somehow reminds of the Middle Ages. However, pieces of the old city wall are still standing, e.g. on the Springwall and on the old battlement.
The Franconian royal court was where the town hall stands today and today's Salvatorkirche was built in the high Middle Ages on the place where the chapel of the royal court stood. The old town of Duisburg lay directly on the Rhine, which changed its course around 1000 years ago, so that the city was only connected to the river by an old branch of the Rhine. This arm of the Rhine is today's Duisburg inner harbor , an area with many restaurants, modern office buildings and museums, old industrial buildings such as mills and warehouses, which were deliberately left standing as relics of their former use. You can reach this port directly from the Schwanentorbrücke. There was the Schwanentor, one of Duisburg's four city gates through which one entered the city in the west. In the east one left the old town through the cow gate. Anyone who expects a goal there today is wrong. Instead, there is a Bunnen, part of the so-called Brunnenmeile, which runs on Königsstraße, the main shopping street. The Königstraße is long, runs exactly on the route of the old Hellweg and leads straight to the main train station, where it ends. The Hellweg continues, of course, is now called Mülheimer Straße and first disappears in an underpass under the railway tracks of the main train station, where it flows into a large intersection on the other side, from which it continues eastwards, still called Mülheimer Straße Towards this city.
The entire course of the old Hellweg leads almost in a straight line through Duisburg. You can put a ruler on the map and clearly see the route from the Kuhtor (even from the Swan Gate) to the train station. There the Hellweg makes a slight bend and continues almost in a straight line towards Mülheim. When you're out and about in the city, none of this is noticed. Traffic junctions, transitions from the pedestrian zone to busy streets, the underpass, etc. make the course very confusing these days.
On the picture (plan by Johannes Corputius from 1566) you can see Duisburg. This view is not northward. The Salvatorkirche is clearly recognizable, with which one can determine the direction of the compass, as with all medieval churches, since the altar is always oriented to the east, i.e. the Holy Land. The tower above the main entrance of the church is therefore in the west. So you would have to turn the map about 90 degrees to the right to see a north-facing orientation.
The swan gate is clearly visible in this view below, the cow gate is located in the city wall almost exactly above the top of the church tower.
You can find the link to the map here.
Mülheim an der Ruhr
The Hellweg is called Mülheimer Straße when coming from Duisburg, leads straight to the east and is called Duisburger Straße from Mülheim-Speldorf. Before you arrive in the center of Mülheim (and that means the medieval center, which is correspondingly small and located directly on the Ruhr), you cross the Schlossbrücke, where there is a ford in the Ruhr that was previously used as a crossing for the Hellweg . This place was secured by a fortress on the left bank of the Ruhr, which was supposed to repel invading Normans in the 9th century. In parts it is the oldest preserved fortification from the late Carolingian era north of the Alps.
You can visit the castle, which is now called Schloss Broich, from the outside. The castle courtyard is open from March to October from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and from November to February from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nowadays the castle is used for all kinds of events, rooms can be rented for weddings, etc. The historical museum in Broich Castle is open on the weekend from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., admission is free. The museum is closed in December and in January and February it opens from 12 noon to 3 pm.
There are a number of events over the course of a year, such as a medieval Whitsun spectacle , the Raffelberger Ritterspektakel in September, a medieval Christmas market , etc.
The old town of Mülheim, which is still worth seeing, begins on the church hill by the Petrikirche. In a bomb attack in 1943, 77 percent of the building was lost. The reconstruction gives an idea of the former appearance of the city. A few houses around the Tersteegen hill and the Petrikirche have been preserved. Without the destruction, Mülheim's old town would look similar to Hattingen today.
Today the Hellweg runs straight as a Leineweberstraße through the middle of the old town of Mülheim below the Tersteegen hill. The boundaries of the old town can be recognized by street names such as Wallstraße.
Old town Mülheim ad Ruhr
Saarn Monastery
Mülheim an der Ruhr has even more to offer: When I drove up the Ruhr, I came to the beautifully situated district of Saarn. With that I left Hellweg, but it was interesting, because south of the route there is also medieval things to see, not as old as the fortress, but at least.
Another reason made the south of the Ruhr area interesting for me: The east-west course of the Hellweg raised the question of why it runs orthogonally to the Rhine, although the important cities from which the impulses to the east originated, Aachen and Cologne, to the south. Why did you first have to travel northwards along the entire Rhine in order to take the Hellweg eastwards from Duisburg? Wouldn't it be much easier to travel straight diagonally and northeast, which would have been a shortcut on the way east?
There were these diagonal streets, but they weren't as well developed as the ancient Roman roads. A number of things arose along these diagonal streets, such as the Saarn Cistercian monastery, which had existed since the 13th century. Some places like Mettmann, a former royal court, Werden, a former monastery or Beyenburg in Wuppertal emerged on these streets.
Quite apart from the monastery, the south of Mülheim is beautiful. The river is wide and leisurely there, rowing clubs line its banks and there are always beautiful houses. The Ruhr area shows itself from a side that a foreigner would probably not expect at all.
Eat Kettwig
Since I was already at the Ruhr, where the Middle Ages left some traces, I made up my mind to go straight to Kettwig and leave Hellweg aside for a while. Location signs pointed to all the historical places in the south of the Ruhr area. Kettwig, the picturesque little town has only belonged to Essen since 1975, it was first mentioned in 1052. The Ruhr formed the border in the Middle Ages
between the territory of the Counts of Berg and the Abbey of Essen and the Imperial Abbey of Werden. So Kettwig was a border town
Today this southern district of Essen is a popular excursion destination - the leisurely, wide Ruhr, the hilly landscape, a small old town with closed historical buildings and a number of restaurants create a holiday mood.
I decided to drive from Kettwig to Werden along the Ruhr, past horse farms through the green Ruhr valley.
Become
In Werden you come across the B224, the Alte Kölnische Landstrasse, which leads from Mettmann to Essen. Here it crosses the Ruhr and then heads north through the wooded district of Bredeney to the center of Essen.
Rellinghausen
I followed the B224, but before I went to Essen, I decided to make a detour to the former Rellinghausen women's monastery. To do this, turn right in Bredeney onto Frankenstrasse, which from there leads fairly straight through the Stadtwald district. The area looks well-off, industrialists and large entrepreneurs like Berthold Beitz, Heinz-Horst Deichmann and the Aldi brothers Albrecht lived there.
I can only guess whether the name Frankenstrasse has anything to do with the Franks, but the name and the straight lines suggest a rather old street. In any case, the road led me straight to Rellinghausen, which was first mentioned in 947 in a document from Otto the Great as a sub-parish of Werden. In 1996 the monastery celebrated its millennium. The founders were probably the Counts of Berg, on whose territory the monastery for ladies of the lower nobility was located.
The area around the monastery is a small oasis with a few half-timbered houses, old trees and the St. Lambertus collegiate church.
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Essen's origin was the establishment of a free world monastery for ladies of the high nobility in 850 by the Hildesheim bishop Altfrid, whose grave can be seen today in the Essen Cathedral in the Ostkraypta named after him. The monastery was founded on Altfrids Gut Asthnide, which was at the intersection of Hellweg and Strata Coloniensis, the road that, as mentioned, led south via Werden to Cologne.
After the church had been rebuilt and rebuilt several times, the Ottonian building was finally built, large parts of which are still preserved today. The most important abbess of Essen was Mathilde II, a granddaughter of Otto the Great (Otto I). Significant art treasures were added to the monastery under her direction. As a child, Mathilde was handed over to the monastery for upbringing, presumably with the intention of making her abbess later. She was a princess from the house of the Ottonians, which significantly upgraded the Essen monastery. In addition, the Essen monastery was directly subordinate to the empire and was therefore subordinate to the emperor in secular matters and to the pope in spiritual matters. In the early Middle Ages, Essen was one of the most important monasteries in the empire, alongside Gandersheim and Quedlinburg. Mathilde's successor was Theophanu, who should not be confused with Theophanu from Byzantium, the empress who was married to Emperor Otto II. But Theophanu, abbess from Essen, was a granddaughter of Otto II and Theophanu from Byzantium and was also named after their grandmother.
The Essen monastery was closely connected with the most important ruling house in the West, the Ottonians.
The Ottonian treasure of the monastery, which today belongs to the diocese, is one of the most important in Germany. Despite all the adversities of history, it borders on a miracle that little of it has been lost and that it has remained almost intact in its entirety.
The cathedral treasury shows the treasure, but does not see itself as a museum, but as a storage place for liturgical objects, some of which are still used in church services.
Ottonian art would be inconceivable without Otto II's marriage to a Byzantine woman. The artistry of driving gold, ornamentation etc. was imported into the Holy Roman Empire by Theophanu of Byzantium.
One should definitely mention the Otto Mathilde Cross and the children's crown that Otto III, son of Empress Theophanu, wore when he was crowned co-king at the age of three. In addition, the oldest sculptural Madonna from the year 980 can be seen in the cathedral, the Golden Madonna, a wooden figure covered with gold sheet. It is believed that the small crown may have been made for the Madonna. But such an elaborate lily crown for a sculpture? For what purpose the crown was made cannot be clearly answered according to the current state of knowledge. But the thought that it would be the children's crown for Otto III. was, later Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, is at least one of the romantic stories that tourists like to look for.
In the Johanneskapelle, which is located directly on the pedestrian zone, Kettwiger Straße, and in front of the cathedral, you can find two wings of an altar by Bartholomäus Bruyn, the elder, from the late Middle Ages, whose works can also be seen in Kalkar, Xanten and Wesel are. However, the chapel is quite dark and the picture also disappears in a weakly lit corner, so that one would wish for a better presentation for a major work by the artist.
Do you want to know more about artists from the Lower Rhine? Click here , then it's off to the Lower Rhine.
Essen Cathedral, seven-armed chandelier in front of the west apse
Essen cathedral treasury, cross of Theophanu
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Essen cathedral treasure, crucifix reliquary
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Essen cathedral treasury, child crown Otto III.
Altarpieces by Bartholomäus Bruyn, the Elder
Steele
Steele was first mentioned in 840, the German Emperor Otto I held a court day there in 938. Today Steele is characterized by the impressive baroque facade of the Princess Franziska Christine Foundation. The complex cannot be visited, it was founded as an orphanage in the 18th century and is still used as such today. In the center of Steele there is Kaiser-Otto-Platz, which is reminiscent of what happened long ago, a few Wilhelminian-style houses, cafes, shops, so that Steele exudes a small-town cosiness and bustle.
Eat Steele
Otherwise there is not much to see if you are walking in the footsteps of the Middle Ages.
Alt-Steele was a half-timbered town like Kettwig, Mühlheim or Hattingen. This old town was not destroyed in the war, but disappeared in the course of the first area renovation in Germany from 1964. Today such an old town would no longer be demolished. Recommended reading: Tim Schanetzky: Endstation megalomania, The history of urban redevelopment in Essen-Steele. It's a shame it wouldn't have been necessary and today a picturesque old town would probably attract visitors.
If you leave today's so-called old town area, Steele looks more like a traffic junction with a S-Bahn station, large road crossings, concrete bridges that have been slammed into the small town, gas stations, parking garages, high-rise buildings. Incidentally, the name Steele has nothing to do with steel or steel, as the foreign visitor might suspect, because the focus in the Ruhr area is on industry. It is an old Germanic word to which our current word "steep" can be traced back. After all, the Bochumer Landstrasse goes uphill from Steele, which could be described as steep. Other sources say that the Kirchberg is meant.
In Steele, the Hellweg runs very close to the Ruhr and since the place does not have enough medieval features, a detour to the Gasthof Haus Großjung , which is located directly on the Ruhr, is recommended. It has nothing to do with the Middle Ages, but it is a great excursion tip to experience the tranquility of the Ruhr Valley. About three kilometers from the center of Steele, you can reach it after driving through a less beautiful industrial area. Idyll and disdainful reality are often close together in the Ruhr area.
Haus Großjung is an old courtyard with a beer garden under old linden trees and weeping willows, which looks a bit rustic and is located directly on a pedestrian pontoon bridge. It is a destination for cyclists and canoeists.
From Steele's center, Hellweg runs through a residential area towards Wattenscheid. At Essen Freisenbruch you get to Bochumer Landstrasse, which later becomes Wattenscheider Hellweg. As soon as you have passed the Essen exit sign, the route leads through fields on a kind of ridge with a clear view and for a moment you have the feeling that you have left the Ruhr area behind you and you can feel the width of a former highway. However, this moment only lasts one kilometer, then you are in Wattenscheid.
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Wattenscheid
Immediately after you have passed the entrance sign for Wattenscheid, you will reach the pilgrims' chapel of St. Bartholomew and next to it the Kümmel Kopp inn. The street is now called Wattenscheider Hellweg.
The chapel next door, the Bartholomäuskapelle, belonged to a pilgrim house and hospital. It was donated in 1364 by Dietrich von der Leythen from the nearby Leiten Castle. The Hellweg was not only a trade and military route, it is said - and the pilgrims' fountain no longer in existence in Bochum would refer to this - also a pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. In front of the chapel there is a small steele with a scallop shell, the symbol of the Camino de Santiago. The chapel is opened every morning at six o'clock and closes again at six in the evening.
Kümmel Kopp and Batholomäuskapelle at Hellweg, Watttenscheid
Scallops in front of the Bartholomew Chapel on Hellweg near Wattenscheid
The Hellweg near Wattenscheid in the sunset
Across from the chapel and the inn, the Sevinghauser Weg leads to the Helfs Hof. You leave the Hellweg, drive in the said path and as soon as you can't go any further, you turn left into the street "In den Höfen". There follows a fairly unrefurbished, narrow street, you have to avoid the potholes, but soon you reach the Helfs Hof, an old farm that now houses a local museum. The Hellweg is said to have led directly past the courtyard in the past. That is questionable, since it would have deviated from the ridge on which the Bartholomäus chapel has stood since the 14th century. The name Helfs Hof is said to have originated from an abbreviation of Hellweg and Hof. In fact, there is a similar place name in Essen Steele: "Im Helf", there it is an abbreviation for Hellwegshof.
Helps Hof am Hellweg, Wattenscheid
Hellweg near Wattenscheid
Bochum
The journey continues on the Wattenscheider Hellweg in the direction of Bochum, it is called Essener Straße from the city limits to Bochum and runs straight to the east, will soon be called Alleestraße and leads directly to the center, where it then becomes a pedestrian zone and is called Bongartstraße.
From Bongartstraße it is only a few meters to the former Reichshof, which was on the site of today's Elisabethkrankenhaus, a small hill so that you have to go up a few steps. There is the Probsteikirche Peter and Paul at the place where the chapel of the Reichshof stood 1200 years ago. Opposite the church is the Rietkötter inn.
If you want a view of Bochum's Probsteikirche from above, you should visit Café Wiacker in the Baltz department store with a very good selection of cakes. A large roof terrace offers beautiful views of the city. If it's too cold outside, you stay inside, the large windows also offer a panoramic view.
Probsteikirche Peter and Paul in Bochum
The Hellweg leads out of Bochum and now there are temporarily two Hellweg on the way to the east, the Werner Hellweg and the Harpener Hellweg.
Also irritating in Bochum's city center is the designation Hellwegstor and Hellweg for a small street in the pedestrian zone that runs in the opposite direction to the otherwise usual straight course of the Hellweg. Does this detour have something to do with the pilgrim fountain that used to exist south of the Hellweg route?
"From the year 1415 (...) a letter of indulgence from the Pope has come down to us, which grants all participants in a pilgrimage from the image of Mary in the provost church to the 'Pilgrim Fountain' des Hellweg located south of the city. Today the location would be roughly on Südring near house No. 15 or on Otto-Sander-Platz. It was there as a pump until the beginning of the 20th century. Unfortunately, the former is now The location of the pilgrim fountain has been lost or overbuilt. " ( Reiner Padligur: Landscape Geomancy in the West - A Geomantic Analysis of the City of Bochum )
A pilgrimage from the provost church to today's Südring? A trip for just a few hundred meters? Should there be an indulgence for that?
The Harpener Hellweg corresponds more to the course of the Hellweg to the east, as it leads straight to the east from Große Beckstraße and Castroper Straße.
From Lütgendortmund both Hellweg (Harpener and Werner Hellweg) converge again and become the Lütgendortmund Hellweg. On it we continue towards Dortmund, a former free imperial and Hanseatic city.
Dortmund
In Dortmund the Middle Ages have disappeared from the cityscape except for the churches. You can still see the ramparts on the city map that surround the city center and their names are evidence of fortifications, east wall, swan wall, etc. But medieval buildings? Once again, negative results. At most, the block between Markt, Gänsemarkt and Marienkirche still looks historic, but these are rebuilding after the war and they are buildings from the 19th century.
As usual, Hellweg runs straight through the middle of the city center and is now a long shopping street from west to east, which at the market is divided into Westenhellweg and Ostenhellweg.
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City model of Dortmund in the Museum of Arts and Crafts Dortmund
Dortmund's churches and artists
There are four large medieval churches within the Wallring, the oldest, the Marienkirche was built in the 12th century, then the Reinoldikirche in 1270, the Church of St. Petri from 1322 and the Probsteikirche from 1358.
After the Reformation, Dortmund became Protestant and the bones of the patron saint Reinoldus were sold to Toledo because the Protestants refuse to worship saints. In the meantime, a few bones have returned from him and are in the only Catholic church in the city center, the provost church, which was built in the Middle Ages as the church of the Dominican monastery. The street name "Black Brothers Street" reminds of the Dominicans, similar to the name "Blackfriars" in London, which is also reminiscent of a former Dominican monastery, as the Dominicans wore a black choir cloak.
In the Popsteikirche you can see an altar by Derick Baegert, the Wesel artist from whom a few paintings hang in the Dortmund Museum for Art and Cultural History in the medieval section. The altar is the only work by Baegert that has remained in the original place in front of it.
If you want to find out more about Derrick Baegert and where there are more pictures of the well-known Wesel artist, click here .
Probsteikirche Dortmund, former Dominican monastery, altar by Derrick Baegert
Kreuzgang des ehemaligen Dominikanerklosters
Lamentation for Christ, Derrick Baegert, around 1490, Museum Kunstgewerbe, Dortmund
Saint Gertrude gives alms, Derrick Baegert, around 1490, Museum Kunstgewerbe, Dortmund
Reinoldi Church, Dortmund; The empty, Gothic reliquary can be seen in the chancel, in which the bones of the patron Reinholdus were kept until the Reformation, which were then sold to Toledo by the Dortmunders.
Iconoclasms, secularization, etc. have caused considerable damage to the art treasures of Westphalia and indeed Germany. Much was sold and since there was more money to be had if you dismantled altars, some of the components are distributed among various museums around the world.
Conrad von Soest
The altar by Conrad von Soest in the Marienkirche also has a story in which the individual pictures were sawed up, adjusted and rearranged. What you see in St. Mary's Church today is actually a fragment. Even at first glance, the composition of the individual panels looks strange, but that can be explained by the circumstances mentioned above. The quality of the painting, the facial features of the figures, the luminosity and brilliance of the colors, on the other hand, are harmonious.
Incidentally, Conrad von Soest was from Dortmund and lived on Ostenhellweg. Of course, it is impossible to find out where the house was. Paintings by him have hardly survived. His most important work is the altar in the Protestant town church in Bad Wildungen in Northern Hesse. But there is also an altar in the Nikolaikapelle in Soest. More on that later as soon as we arrive in Soest.
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Marienkirche, Dortmund, altar by Conrad von Soest
Master of the Bersword Altar
Also in the Marienkirche is an altar from 1390 in the north aisle, which was donated by the Berswordt family from Dortmund. The Berswordts belong to the oldest city noble families in the cities of Dortmund and Soest. The artist of the altar is completely unknown according to medieval custom, which is why he received the emergency name "Master of the Bersword Altar" in art historians' circles. It is believed that his workshop was in Cologne. He was active in northern and eastern Westphalia, i.e. Bielefeld, where you can still see an altar by him in the Neustädter Marienkirche, and Osnabrück, where his altarpiece is no longer available due to destruction.
His most important surviving work, however, is the West West in Altenberg Cathedral in the Bergisches Land.
More about Altenberg Cathedral? Click here .
Bersword altar, Marienkirche Dortmund
Inn and town hall
Every medieval city has traditional inns. So also Dortmund, but if there was not an information board reminding of it, one would not take the "Wenkers", the old crown on the market, for that.
This is the only inn in downtown Dortmund that has retained its name and function from the Middle Ages to the present day. The first reference in the Dortmund annals comes from the year 1430. Here, for the first time in Westphalia, top-fermented beer was brewed in addition to Altbier, the Dortmunder Export. The current building was rebuilt after it was destroyed in the war and stands exactly in the same place as the old house since 1430. Unfortunately, you don't notice the tradition of the inn in the furnishings and the building. The food is good. Salt cake is recommended as a snack, accompanied by a pestle, a Dortmund specialty - beer that is tapped in small glasses between 0.1 and 0.18 l and that you drink in between meals. If the pestle is not on the menu in the inns around the market, order anyway - you get it.
The old town hall used to be on the market next door. Unfortunately, it was not rebuilt after the war, although it was the first stone town hall in Germany.
A virtual tour gives an impression of the market around 1900.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=Bmd7UayVT5A&feature=emb_logo
Wenkers, the old crown on the market
Zum Alten Markt, traditional brewery in Dortmund, Reinoldikirche
Not quite as old as the Krone on the market, but the Cafe Strickmann is especially recommended for a good breakfast. Great cafe, a Dortmund institution with a lot of retro charm from the 50s. It's full at brunch time, so make reservations or go early.
On the Hellweg between Dortmund and Soest
If you drive further east on the Hellweg, you first have to drive through many Dortmund districts and suburbs until you are back in the country. You should get around that by taking the Westfalendamm to leave the city behind. The Westfalendamm is a six-lane street that is flanked by plane trees and runs about two kilometers south of the center, i.e. the medieval town. It is the direct continuation of the Ruhr Schnellweg (A40) coming from the west, merges into the A44 in the east from the Dortmund / Unna junction and runs parallel to the historic Hellweg.
You could continue on the A44 to Soest, but the goal of my journey is to follow the trail of the Hellweg, so you can return to the Hellweg from the Unna-Ost motorway exit by driving a short distance in the direction of Unna until turn right onto the B1, which runs along the old Hellweg.
In the morning the B1 is still relatively empty, but in the course of a fine day it can get full - you are on the edge of the Ruhr area, one of the most populous areas in Europe. There are fewer traffic jams, but the traffic prevents the feeling of leisurelyness. I was driving around 10 a.m. on a sunny Sunday morning in July and found the drive to be serene and fairly calm at that time.
At some point you reach the Soest Börde, the largest of the Hellwegbörden and a fertile loess plain, and drive through wide, golden-yellow, glowing cornfields. Part of the road runs again as if drawn with a ruler. There are many old farms along the way, and sometimes there are also inns, which by their names "Soester Börde" or "Landhaus Hellweg" undoubtedly indicate their location. Courtyards lure with signs that their products are sold directly. In their barn there are nicely arranged vegetables, home-made products and a piece of cake with coffee is also available. The closer you get to Soest, the more often you see houses made of green Anröchter sandstone, a frequently used regional building material. Places impress with the reference to their age (since 833) and signs remind you of the entrances to the historic federal highway B1.
You almost get the feeling of a road movie and you ask yourself whether the B1 could be something like a German Route 66 or a Route nationale 7 - but then something is missing. Streets with the potential to create legends must be longer and lonelier, lead to strange, ideally southern, areas, be inhabited by dropouts, tramps and freaks who live on their fringes, etc.
While the B1 rolls around in front of you, your thoughts wander in strange directions - actually I'm on the trail of the Middle Ages and the Hellweg.
All the time on the way to Soest you notice that the terrain south of Hellweg gradually rises towards the Haarstrang mountain range. Nowhere can you feel better than here that the Hellweg constantly runs along the foot of the low mountain range. In the north the country is flat, in the south the topography rises slowly, the north German lowlands meet with low mountain ranges. You notice it especially clearly in Soest when you leave the city southwards. Immediately behind the city wall, it goes gradually but steadily uphill. In Dortmund, too, you can feel it when you leave the train station in the direction of the city center and have to go up a number of stairs. This rise is nothing less than the beginning of the German low mountain range.
Soest
Historically, the city is a heavyweight, so you don't know where to set the tone.
First of all, Soest has a beautiful cityscape. It is not Rothenburg ob der Tauber, but it can be counted among the well-preserved cities in North Rhine-Westphalia. However, one has to realize that Soest was destroyed to over sixty percent in the Second World War, which means that one of the most picturesque cities in Germany was pretty much destroyed. The love for their city led to the fact that the Soestians tried to restore the old state in large parts, similar to the one in Münster.
If you stroll through the city, you will notice how green it is and how big the plots are even in the old town center. There is no such thing as a narrow development like in Lübeck, where every square meter was used. Many small corridors lead through the town along garden walls and you can move around the small town very easily on foot. It looks idyllic and manageable, calm and orderly. You can see the town's former importance, but also get the impression that it has sunk into its regional importance for the Soest Börde today.
There are a few things you should know about Soest:
Soest's wealth was based on salt. Like Lüneburg, this made the city rich. The dignified brine spa Bad Sassendorf, located directly east of Soest, still lives from the brine today.
Soest was also a Hanseatic trading town and so their relationships extended to Russia and Sweden.
In Soest is the famous cowhide on which the Soest town charter was written, from which the saying "Das geht auf keine Kuhhaut" ("It does not fit on any cowhide", meaning something like: It beggars description) is supposedly derived. It is the oldest recorded city law in German-speaking countries and dates from around 1225. It is not large, the cowhide is a parchment measuring 21 x 28 inches, on which the legal provisions are written in 66 lines, according to which the Soesters had to comply . It is in the city archives, a facsimile of which can be viewed in the Burghofmuseum.
From this law, the Luebian city charter developed in 1160, which Henry the Lion gave the citizens of Luebeck (I never understood the discrepancy between the years of origin). Soest merchants and citizens worked on the development of this legal basis for the Hanseatic League, which later found application in over a hundred Hanseatic cities, so that throughout the Middle Ages there was a very close relationship between the Hanseatic cities on the coast and Westphalia. (You can find more about the relationship between the Soesters and the Hanseatic League here on the page about Hanseatic cities. )
Soest was also an important secondary residence of the Archbishops of Cologne, who had a palace in what is now the inner city of the city, directly west of the St. Petri Church. It can be assumed that due to the obligation to accept travelers as guests, numerous emperors who were on the Hellweg were accommodated there.
Later, under the Cologne Archbishop Philipp von Heinsberg, the residence of the Cologne Archbishops was moved to the periphery of today's old town in the 12th century, next to the city wall at the church of St. Thomäe with the leaning spire. The new residence was called "Neue Pfalz" or "Palatium". Presumably they moved because the land was simply bigger in the new location. The old Palatinate was replaced by a hospital in 1178, the first in Germany to be founded independently of a monastery.
The palatium has disappeared today. Soest and Cologne did not get along well, because the Duchy of Westphalia began to consolidate, Soest would have liked to become a Free Imperial City - in short: There were efforts for independence, which was expressed in the creation of the Soest city charter.
This gave rise to the "Soest Feud", in which Cologne lost, which in turn had far-reaching consequences for Soest, because Cologne had protected the wealth of Soest, which the new dukes of Cleves did not do. Soest was pretty isolated and actually the steady decline began with the separation from Cologne.
In 1444 the city suffered another haemorrhagging. The Soestians had the right to get wood from the Arnsberg Forest, but as a hunting ground in the Electorate of Cologne, the Soesters were forbidden to hunt there. They did this anyway and the outrage on hunting would be atoned for with a ban on the use of wood and the surrender of the image of the Virgin Mary, which was in the Wiesenchurch, to the neighboring town of Werl, whereby Soest lost all pilgrims and Werl rose to become an important pilgrimage site.
Jacobitor, Soest
Historically, the city is a heavyweight, so you have to set accents when visiting.
First of all, Soest has a beautiful cityscape. It is not Rothenburg ob der Tauber, but in North Rhine-Westphalia it can be counted among the well-preserved cities, although Soest was destroyed to over sixty percent in the Second World War, which pretty much hit one of the most picturesque cities in Germany. The Soester's love for their city led to attempts to restore large parts of the city to its old state.
If you stroll through the city, you will notice how green it is and how big the plots are even in the old town center, so that gardens within the city walls are not uncommon. There are also many small aisles for pedestrians that branch off from streets and how Abbreviations for the initiated lead mysteriously between garden walls, so that you can move around the small town very well on foot. It looks idyllic, manageable, calm and orderly. You can see Soest's former importance mainly because of the churches. Nowadays Soest only has a regional significance that does not go beyond the Börde.
There are a few things to know about the city:
Soest's wealth was based on salt and trade. Archaeological finds suggest salt boiling. The dignified saltwater spa Bad Sassendorf, east of Soest, still lives from the saltwater.
Along with Dortmund, Osnabrück and Münster, Soest was one of the four Westphalian Hanseatic cities and so trade relations extended as far as Russia and Sweden.
In Soest there is the famous cowhide on which the Soest town charter was written, from which the saying "That doesn't work on a cowhide" is supposedly derived. It is the oldest recorded city law in German-speaking countries and dates from around 1225. The cowhide is not large, it is a parchment measuring 55 x 72 centimeters on which the legal provisions are written in 66 lines, according to which the Soesters had to comply . It is in the city archives, a facsimile of which can be viewed in the Burghofmuseum .
This cowhide is not entirely unimportant: Not only does it contain the first city law, it also formed the basis for the city law of Lübeck, the capital of the Hanseatic League, developed in 1160. Heinrich the Lion granted Lübeck this right and since Lübeck was the capital of the Hanseatic League, the so-called "Lübische law" was adopted by over a hundred Hanseatic cities, including the Hanseatic cities of Reval and Riga in the Baltic States.
Impressive - there you stand in the tranquil small town of Soest in Westphalia and realize that things were created here that later influenced all of North-Eastern Europe. Since Soester Kauflaute were involved in the development of Luebian law, there was a very close relationship between the Hanseatic cities on the coast and Westphalia throughout the Middle Ages. (You can find more about the Soester's relationship with the Hanseatic League and the Soester and Lübischen city law here on the page about Hanseatic cities.)
Soest originally belonged to the tribal duchy of Saxony, was subordinate to the Guelphs in the high Middle Ages, until Friedrich Barbarossa outlawed the Saxon King Heinrich the Lion and divided his territory into Saxony, whereby the western part of Saxony, i.e. Westphalia, was assigned to the Archbishop of Cologne, who joined forces in Soest Set up a secondary residence. (do you want to know where the tribal duchy of Saxony was? click here ) Soest became the capital of the Cologne duchy of Westphalia and in the innermost urban area of today a palace was built directly west of the St. Petri Church. It can be assumed that due to the obligation to accept travelers as guests, numerous emperors who were on the Hellweg were accommodated there.
Later, under the Cologne Archbishop Philipp von Heinsberg, the residence of the Cologne Archbishops was moved to the periphery of today's old town in the 12th century, next to the city wall at the church of St. Thomäe with the leaning spire. The new residence was called "Neue Pfalz" or "Palatium". Presumably they moved because the land was simply bigger in the new location. The Old Palatinate was replaced by a hospital in 1178, the first in Germany to be founded independently of a monastery.
Church of St. Thomäe on the city wall, where the New Palatinate used to be.
The palatium has disappeared today. The Soest and the Cologne did not get along, because the Duchy of Westphalia began to get stronger and Soest would have liked to become a Free Imperial City - in short: There were efforts for independence, which was expressed, among other things, in the creation of the above-mentioned Soest city charter.
This gave rise to the Soest feud, in which the Cologne people lost out, which in turn had far-reaching consequences for Soest, because Cologne had protected Soest's wealth, which the new dukes of Kleve did not. Soest had been pretty isolated since breaking away from Cologne and that was actually when the steady decline began.
In 1444 the city suffered another bloodletting. Although the Soesters had the right to get their wood needs from the Arnsberg Forest, as a hunting ground in the Electorate of Cologne, the Soesters were forbidden to hunt there. They did this anyway and the outrage on hunting would be atoned for with a ban on the use of wood and the surrender of the image of the Virgin Mary, which was in the Wiesenkirche, to the neighboring village of Werl, whereby Soest lost all pilgrims and Werl rose to become an important place of pilgrimage.
Potsdamer Platz, Soest
St. Patrokli and St. Peter
Half-timbered houses, Am Seel, Soest
Soest Town Hall, St. Patrokli
House to the Rose (Freiligrathhaus)
St. Mary on the heights
St. Maria zur Höhe, Hohnekirche, Soest, Anröchter sandstone
But all this is more prominent than disturbing. The painting in particular is one of the most remarkable of the 13th century. Ornaments, painted mythical animals and candelabra adorn the vaults. The walls are carpeted in a naturalistic manner with painted nails and fringes, something the crusaders had seen in Byzantium, and the windows are flanked by painted columns.
The St. Catherine's Choir, the small apse on the east side on the left, was painted in 1260 in a serrated style with strong Byzantine characteristics. In particular, the golden frame and the golden, relief-like background of Christ and Mary are reminiscent of Byzantine traditions, which can be found primarily in orthodox church art.
The coronation of Mary is shown in the center of the Catherine choir. There are also scenes from the life of Catherine of Alexandria.
The large, blue and gold central choir was also created around 1230 and shines. Mary sits there in the middle of the ceiling of the apse on the throne of Solomon and holds the Christ child. The color tone of blue and gold appears precious, as does the painting with painted ornamentation and architecture.
Apse, painting, St. Maria zur Höhe, Hohnekirche, Soest
At that time, blue was the most precious color of all and blue color pigments were weighed with gold in a ratio of 1:1. Obtained from the rare blue stone lapis lazuli, which only exists in Afghanistan, which was imported into the West and from which these pigments were obtained in a complex process, make this color so precious. In the Hohnekirche the details, the ornaments and the balance of colors in the chancel and in the apse are impressive.
In the middle of the choir is the altar with the reredos by the Master of Liesborn, who could have been Johann von Soest. The picture shows Calvary and is one of the main works of late Gothic painting in Westphalia. It is the best of the remaining sacred panel paintings in Soest. The two wings of the altar are missing. The painting is presented in a beautiful neo-Gothic frame.
Calvary, Master of Liesborn, Johann von Soest, 1480, St. Maria zur Höhe, Hohnekirche, Soest
Digression: The Master of Liesborn
The works of the Master von Liesborn are considered the epitome of Westphalian late Gothic panel painting. To this day, it has not been possible to unequivocally determine his identity. Reasonable assumptions point to the artist Johann von Soest, since his works can mainly be found in the area around Soest or were created for places that were closely related to Liesborn Abbey. From this abbey, in which his main work, an altarpiece, stood, his emergency name "Painter von Liesborn" was derived . The abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Liesborn, about 20 kilometers north of Soest, was dissolved in 1803 with the Reichsdeputationsschluss. The reredos were sawed in order to get more money by selling several parts. Parts of it are now in the National Gallery in London and in the LWL Museum for Art and Culture in Münster.
The painting by the master of Liesborn still enjoys great appreciation today due to its high artistic quality.
Liesborn Abbey, Liesborn
Liesborn Abbey, Liesborn
Excerpts from paintings by the Master of Liesborn, Abbey Museum, Liesborn
Soest Disk Cross, St. Maria zur Höhe, Hohnekirche Soest
To the right of the chancel is the monumental disc cross from about 1230. There is nothing comparable in all of Europe except on the Swedish island of Gotland. How did the disc cross get here? It belongs to the genus of triumphal crosses normally placed in the nave high up in front of the chancel. Since the Soest church is not high enough, the cross was probably intended for a different location and here too it looks more like an altar that was set up there. A mysterious, archaic effect emanates from the matt, shiny cross, the metallic-silver shimmer is supplemented with blue parts. Under the cross are crimson areas reminiscent of the wing panels of an altar. They are provided with shimmering metallic squares and take up the ornamentation of the painted tapestries, which have squares of almost the same size and are reminiscent of a checked pattern. It's all very harmonious and balanced.
Where did the cross come from? It is made from Scandinavian spruce. Which cultural influences can be found in it? It is reminiscent of Celtic Crosses found in Ireland, Sun Crosses, Swedish Midsummer, Wheel Crosses from the Bronze Age. Perhaps the origin lies in paganism, which is evident here in remnants of a northern European culture that was Christianized.
Opposite the entrance, i.e. on the north wall, is the niche of the Holy Sepulchre, which represents the empty tomb of Jesus. The wall paintings show the crucifixion up to the Ascension.
In the west, to the left of the burial niche, is the baptismal font, which is separated from the church interior by three stout columns. The small room behind the pillars is a beautiful place where small family baptisms can be performed at one of the oldest baptismal fonts in the city.
Baptismal font, St. Maria zur Höhe, Hohnekirche, Soest
Nikolaikapelle
Nicholas Altar, Nicholas Chapel, Soest, Conrad von Soest
Nicholas Chapel, Soest
Soest All Saints' Fair
All Saints' Fair Soest, St. Petri
Drüggelter chapel
After a visit to Soest, it is worth taking a short detour to the Haarstrang to the Drüggelter Chapel. To do this, take the B229, Arnsberger Straße. As already mentioned, it goes steadily uphill. If you want to eat well, it is worth making a detour to the Zur Steinkiste restaurant, which is located right next to a stone grave that dates back to approx. 3000 BC. Is dated. The way to the stone grave is signposted and the restaurant is right next door.
After a visit to Soest, it is worth taking a short detour to the Haarstrang to the Drüggelter Chapel. To do this, take the B229, Arnsberger Straße, which leads out of Soest and then leads steadily uphill onto Haarstrang. If you want to eat well, it is worth taking a detour to the Zur Steinkiste restaurant, which is located right next to a stone grave that dates back to approx. 3000 BC. Is dated. The way to the stone grave is signposted and the restaurant is right next door.
We discovered the restaurant by accident and meanwhile we have been there several times. The decor is rustic, the menu is seasonal, varied, but not overloaded.
The Drüggelter Chapel is located on the secluded farm Schulte-Drüggelte above the Möhneseesee, which you can see lying in the depression when driving to the chapel through a birch avenue.
If you want to find out more about the Möhnesee, click here .
Möhnesee, Sauerland
The Drüggelter Chapel is a round building, which sets it apart from the usual longitudinal buildings. The interior of the small sacred building is defined by a wreath of twelve slender columns with Romanesque capitals as well as an inner wreath of two more compact, thicker columns and two brick round pillars made of green Anröchter sandstone. The many columns look like a forest made of tree trunks, only on closer inspection does the arrangement become aware. The capitals have an archaic ornamentation.
The place has a spiritual aura, it is a kind of place of power and there are seldom visitors, so that one can intensely perceive the atmosphere undisturbed.
Drüggelt Chapel
Paderborn
In 776, Charlemagne founded the Palatinate and the Karlsburg at the sources of the Pader. This Palatinate is considered to be the birthplace of the medieval German Empire, as the first Reichstag under Charlemagne took place there in 777. On this occasion the settlement got its name "Patris Brunna", 799 the foundation of the diocese Paderborn was sealed, an event in which Charlemagne Pope Leo III. received in Paderborn. At the same time, the founding of the dioceses of Bremen, Verden, Minden, Münster and Osnabrück was established. In 822 the founding of the Corvey Monastery was determined. The patron saint Liborius was contributed from Le Mans in France and reached the Westphalian part of the empire on Pentecost Sunday in the year 836. Today Liborius is celebrated in his honor every July, which puts the city in a nine-day state of emergency, in which - so they say - Return home from Paderborn from all over the world to be able to take part in the festival. During this festival, the patron Liborius is carried through the city in a precious shrine and it is one of the most prestigious honorary offices in the city to be a member of the Brotherhood of Shrine Bearers. In order to become a member, a tenure for life, one must be proposed by another fraternity member. The solidarity of the Paderborn people with their cathedral and the patron saint of the city goes deep.
The cathedral had some forerunners from the Carolingian and Romanesque times. The way it appears today, it was started around 1200 and is a mixture of Romanesque and Gothic elements, eight chapels are attached to the aisles, each of them furnished in Baroque style. Paderborn's Baroque transformation began even before the Thirty Years' War, when Paderborn was re-Catholicized by the Jesuit college, and later in 1614 the Academia Theodoriana was added, which was connected to the grammar school, from which the first Catholic university in Westphalia emerged. Today's Marktkirche, then the university church, is the second largest Jesuit building in northern Germany after Cologne. It was built in its current appearance after the Thirty Years' War. The connection to France through the saint from Le Mans played just as much a role in the Baroqueization as the fact that Louis XIV personally, while still a child, called on the military through the influence of the cathedral chapter of Le Mans, Paderborn in the turmoil at the end of the Treat the Thirty Years' War well.
The north-western old town is characterized by the Pader springs, a total of 200 small springs that gush 3000 - 9000 liters of water per second to the surface, making this the strongest headwaters in Germany. The springs are walled in like a basin, they are places of calm, surrounded by parks and promenades. There are two main source areas, one north of the cathedral and the Palatinate at the baroque city library and another north of Marienplatz. During a tour of the old town you repeatedly come across one of the many watercourses that are crystal clear, without any pollution and with a relatively high flow speed in the middle of the city, providing a habitat for muskrats, dippers and other animals. Aquatic plants move gently in the current, the rush of water can be heard in some places, the gardens of the adjacent houses extend to the watercourses and very private barbecue and seating areas right by the water awaken the idea that it is very nice to live in Paderborn. Cafés in the green spaces extend their seating to the lawns, students lie on blankets and prefer to study in the park than at home, yogis exercise in the fresh air, couples stroll, a group of sleeping carpenters lies barefoot in their gap on the lawns between the watercourses.
Pader headwaters, Paderborn
On the floorboards, Paderquelle, Paderborn
Library and the High Cathedral of St. Maria, St. Liborius, St. Kilian
District Church St. Ulrich
The High Cathedral of St. Maria, St. Liborius, St. Kilian
Town Hall, Paderborn, Renaissance
Motif of the three rabbit window as a banister, Paderborn
Tomb of Prince Bishop Dietrich von Fürstenberg, Paderborn Cathedral
Irminsul - the hero of the Saxons
The place Obermarsberg an der Diemel is quite far away from Hellweg. The place is noteworthy as it was a holy, pagan city of the Saxons who were supposed to be Christianized by the Franks. The Saxons were resistant to the new faith, which led to the most difficult wars during the reign of Charlemagne, the Saxon Wars .
If you want to proselytize, you often build your places of worship on indigenous places of worship. This is exactly what Charlemagne did when he had the Saxon sanctuary, the so-called Irminsul, destroyed in 772. According to the Frankish imperial annals, the Irminsul was located near Obermarsberg, where the Eresburg was also located. The castle was located above the Diemel valley and was conquered by Charlemagne in 772 during the Saxon Wars.
The Irminsul was a pillar, but some sources mention that it was a tree that was so big that one saw a connection between heaven and earth in it. The tree story is more reminiscent of the Donar oak near Fritzlar, which, by the way, was also felled for the purpose of Christianization.
Do you want to find out more about the Donareiche in Fritzlar? Click here .
While I was dealing with the Irminsul on my trip to Old Saxony, I came up with the association with the film 'Avatar', in which the tree of souls, a sacred place of the indigenous people, is to be destroyed in order to defeat them.
The first Christian altar in place of the pagan sanctuary was built in 779 by Sturmius, who, as abbot of the Fulda monastery, had taken over the security of the Germania on the right bank of the Rhine north of the Main.
From Paderborn my journey went on the Hellweg, the route of the Christianization of Old Saxony, on to the Weser, where the end point of the journey is reached in the Corvey Monastery.
With the monastery, the Hellweg ends again with a strong climax.
Corvey Monastery
Carolingian Westwork, Corvey, World Heritage Site
The monastery church
Construction of this church began in the 9th century and the westwork was completed in 885. The westwork from the Carolingian era has largely been preserved to this day and, as the only architectural monument of its kind, cannot be overestimated in terms of its importance.
On the model below, which is shown in the monastery, you can see the old abbey church from the east, the westwork are the two small towers at the very back.
Reconstruction of Corvey Abbey circa 885
The illustration below shows the view from the westwork to the baroque high altar.
Only the western part of the monastery church has been preserved in its original form; the eastern part of the church was rebuilt in the Baroque era by the Corveyer sovereign, the power-conscious church prince and bishop of Münster Christoph Bernhard von Galen, after the church had previously been rebuilt by imperial troops during the Thirty Years' War had been destroyed.
Westwork, Corvey, World Heritage Site
the Christianization of Northern Europe
One of the Corveyer monks from the very beginning was Saint Ansgar, also called the Apostle of the North. He drove the Christianization of Northern Europe is advancing. Whether Ansgar the diocese Hamburg founded is controversial in research, but what is certain is that he was later considered by Ludwig the German (son of Ludwig the Pious) bishop from Bremen and that he was used as a more papal Legacy for Denmark, Sweden and S law Areas was active. The fact is that he went to the former town of Birka (today located on Lake Mälaren west of Stockholm) at the invitation of the Swedish king of legends Björn på Håga and founded a Christian community there. An Ansgar cross still reminds of him today. In Copenhagen there is a monument that commemorates him, in Ripen and Haithabu he left one church to build.
That's why Corvey is visited by many Scandinavian tourists.
Widukind by Corvey
The second important personality of Corvey is Widukind von Corvey, who lived under the imperial rule of Otto the Great and wrote the history of the Saxons, the "Res Gestae Saxonicae ", a representation of the tribal duchy of Saxony. There is little about Widukind's life famous. But from his work it can be deduced what literary role models he had. At the time of Emperor Otto the Great, the Corveys library was probably one of the most important libraries in Saxony, with extensive access to ancient and early medieval works. Among them was the Carolingian manuscript with the first six books of the annals of the Roman historian Tacitus, which were published at the beginning of the 16th century. was stolen from the monastery, came to Italy and is now in the Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence. In the picture below you can see the handwriting.
Tacitus Codex, 9th century Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence
Last but not least, a look into the extensive Princely Library, which is housed in 15 rooms, which is housed in one of the baroque new buildings that were built after the Thirty Years War as the living and representation area of the prince abbots.
The library came into being after the Landgrave of Hessen-Rotenburg, Viktor Amadeus, came into the possession of Corvey and brought his library here from Rotenburg. The main focus of the library, which today comprises 74,000 volumes, is German, English and French fiction from the 18th and 19th centuries. It is one of the largest private book collections in Germany.
Princely Library Corvey
