Germany Scenic Routes: Weser-Renaissance-Route

Weser Renaissance Route

Running for approximately 400 kilometres and designed specifically for visitors travelling by car, the Weser Renaissance Route starts in Hannoversch Münden and finishes in Bremen.

Hannoversch Münden (short: Münden) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. Münden lies in the district of Göttingen at the confluence of the Fulda and Werra rivers, which join and eventually form the Weser. It is famous for its half-timbered houses, some of them more than 600 years old.

Due to the sheer number of buildings along the way, the route is divided into three sections.

The southern section begins in Hannoversch Münden and ends in Höxter and Blomberg.

The middle section runs from Blomberg to Hamelin.

In the north, the route starts in Hamelin and finishes in the Hanseatic city of Bremen.

Together, the sections offer the opportunity to visit all of the individual Weser Renaissance buildings on a circular tour.

Map

History

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Weser region enjoyed a construction boom in the style of the Weser Renaissance. While many buildings in southern Germany were converted to the baroque style after the Thirty Years‘ War, the Renaissance style was largely retained in the north. The region took longer to recover from the heavy damage and economic decline suffered during the Thirty Years‘ War, and many places simply did not have the money for architectural reconstruction.

The Weser region therefore still has far more Renaissance buildings than any other part of Germany, and you can admire many of these on the way from Hannoversch Münden to Bremen on the Weser Renaissance Route. The period of economic prosperity between 1520 and 1620 resulted in extensive building work. The well-heeled nobility and landowners built impressive palaces, town halls, residences and farmsteads in stone or half-timbered construction.

Related topics:

Minden Aqueduct (Minden, North Rine-Westphalia at the Weser)