Worms ist die älteste Stadt Deutschlands und trotz großer Zerstörungen im 17./18. Jahrhundert sowie im Zweiten Weltkrieg sind einige interessante Sehenswürdigkeiten erhalten.
Worms is the oldest town in Germany and despite experiencing extensive damage in the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as during the Second World War, some interesting landmarks still remain.
Furthermore Nibelungen and Siegfried Road can be discovered on a round trip. This leads through wonderful varied landscapes, historical towns, past legendary castles and impressive buildings.
In order to explore the western part of the two roads (Worms, Buerstadt, Lorsch, Bensheim) the Herrenhaus Park Hotel is recommended as a starting point for a day excursion through Lindenfels, Michelstadt, Erbach, Miltenberg and Freudenberg and further along the Nibelungen Road to Wuerzburg Castle. Here particularly inviting is the Steinburg Castle Hotel, with its breathtaking view over the old residential town. It is worthwhile to stay here at least two nights, in order to have sufficient time to explore Wuerzburg Castle and the sloped winegrowing areas along the River Main. The next stage leads through Wertheim, Tauberbischofsheim and Wallduern to Amorbach at the old monastery property of the Benedictine Abbey, the Schafhof Country Hotel.
In addition to the excellent cuisine, the Schafhof offers an idyllic feelgood atmosphere, which can be enjoyed over several days, before making one’s way over the Siegfried Road (Hesseneck, Mossau Valley, Fuerth, Heppenheim) back to the starting point of the round trip. Apart from the Nibelungen Museum in Worms, the cathedral as well as the oldest German synagogue and the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe are also highly recommendable sightseeing stops. Lorsch Monastery with Carolingian gate house, church, tithe barn and monastery wall has since 1991 been a UNESCO world cultural heritage site. The Nibelungen Hall with mural paintings can be visited in the town hall as can the ruin of the former imperial abbey situated directly next door. The tobacco museum is also of interest.
Visitors to Bensheim are greeted by numerous renovated half-timbered houses and old aristocratic courtyards and in the Auerbach quarter, the “Fuerstenlager” state park, the former summer residence of the landgraves of Hessen Darmstadt, awaits to be discovered.
Very close by, near Lindenfels in the Lauter Valley, is the Felsenmeer, an old Roman quarry with numerous artistic references to stonemasonry from that period. Lindenfels itself is a small romantic town with winding alleyways, a medieval townscape and a castle ruin well worth visiting.
The next stop along the Nibelungen Road is Michelstadt, a well preserved medieval town with many interesting buildings and museums.
The route continues along to Erbach, the centre of ivory carving. The former residential town of the Counts of Erbach- Erbach has an old part of town well worth seeing, with an impressive baroque castle and, apart from the unique “German Ivory Museum”, it also accommodates the castle museum with the Counts’ collection.
The next stage of the journey leads through Miltenberg, a small, romantic, medieval town with panache, to Freudenberg.
The ancient small town in Main is situated in a particularly idyllic scenic position. Well worth seeing is the Freudenburg Castle, the gable houses as well as the cemetery chapel with exposed frescoes and the ship and cooperage museum.
The Nibelungen Road ends at Wuerzburg. The old residential town with its magnificent baroque houses is the perfect place for longer breaks too. The “Princely Residence” is a UNESCO world cultural heritage site. From Wuerzburg it continues over the Siegfried Road heading back to Worms again, to the starting point of the round trip on the trail of the Nibelungen. First stop is Wertheim, an old Franconian gem with its quaint older part of town, on the delta of the River Tauber in the Main.
Via Tauberbischofsheim with its historical old part of town and numerous places of interest and monuments (e.g. Renaissance archways, neo- Gothic town hall, monastery garden and church) it continues through Wallduern, the well-known place of pilgrimage with baroque church and magnificent organ, Roman excavations and the Limes Nature Trail well worth seeing on to Amorbach. An abbey church from the 18th century with the largest baroque organ in Europe can be found here.
