Peace Route Münster

10:59 h
166.01 km
612 m
610 m
36 m
201 m
165 m
Start: The Peace Route is passable in both directions and signposted.
Destination: The Peace Route is passable in both directions and signposted.

For a change, walk on well-trodden paths: The Peace Route follows the paths of the Peace Riders, who commuted between Osnabrück and Münster for five years until 1648. In both cities, envoys of the European powers struggled for the end of the Thirty Years' War. What was the situation between the Netherlands and Spain in Münster? How was it between the German Emperor and the Swedish Queen in Osnabrück? Answers came at a gallop. Choose a calmer pace. And enjoy the charming transition from the Teutoburg Forest to the Münsterland park landscape.

Visit the places where world history was written. Take a seat in the Peace Hall of the more than 500-year-old Osnabrück Town Hall, where the envoys of Emperor Ferdinand III and Queen Christina of Sweden, together with representatives of numerous smaller states, tried for the first time how it works: a pan-European peace conference. Historical portraits show all the statesmen who argued, negotiated, and waited for new news from Münster here.

The view from the Osnabrück Town Hall has changed little since the peace negotiations 350 years ago: Gothic stepped gables and pointed arches shape the cityscape. The Peace Riders would certainly be amazed on their way out of the city. On the foothills of the Teutoburg Forest around Hasbergen, you can discover exciting traces of industrial culture. For example, in the Silberseestollen, a visitor mine of the TERRA.vita Nature Park, you will find a fossilized seabed and traces of marine animals millions of years old. The village Hagen a.T.W., on the other hand, the riders of the past would find hardly changed. This is because the community has returned to the old tradition of cherry cultivation, established new orchard meadows, and maintains the old tree stocks. In spring, you cycle here through a breezy flurry of snow-white petals.

In Bad Iburg, the path divides. Whichever direction you choose – first take a look at the magnificent castle high above the Kneipp spa town. Here the Prince-Bishops of Osnabrück resided, who were sometimes Catholic, sometimes Protestant since the decision of the Peace of Westphalia – a unique regulation across Europe. The eastern route leads over the Bad Laer brine spa and through the asparagus region around Glandorf.
The western route follows the ridges of the Teutoburg Forest for a while through the towns of Lienen and Lengerich to Tecklenburg. At the foot of the picturesque mountain town lies Water Castle Haus Marck, where the pan-European conference was prepared in 1643. The destination for both routes is Münster. In the second town hall of the Peace of Westphalia, representatives of the Vatican also took part in the negotiations, who did not want to sit at a table with Protestants in Osnabrück. Thanks to the Peace Riders, however, an agreement was finally reached.

Use one of the package offers from Münsterland e.V. at the following links:
Travel offers for the Peace Route