The Eco path archeology Calden runs around Calden and the Tiergarten forest area, a former hunting area of the Landgraves of Hessen-Kassel. It aims to inspire you to familiarize yourself with the story Caldens and to occupy its immediate surroundings and to keep them from being forgotten. The landscape of the Eco Path Archeology Calden is also attractive, as it runs through open landscapes as well as forests and there is a beautiful view towards the north of the zoo Grebenstein and on the Kassel-Calden Airport Has.
Route profile
- Length: 8 km or 6 km without a lime tree avenue. The Eco Path Archeology Calden can be easily combined with a visit to Wilhelmsthal Castle and the adjoining park with water features.
- Mark: The Eco Path Archeology Calden is marked with a C composed of stone blocks, which is intended to remind of the two stone chamber tombs or gallery tombs I and II.
- Signposting: The signposting of the hiking trail can be described as good, the hiking sign can be found on red signs. Sometimes the signs are a bit confusing because of the markings in both directions.
- Suitable footwear: Since the eco path also leads over unpaved and natural paths, you should use sturdy footwear in appropriate weather conditions.
- Family suitability: Yes, the Eco Path Archeology Calden is also accessible with smaller children.
- Mountain bike suitability: Yes, most of the hiking route can even be used with normal bicycles without any problems.
- Best season: The Eco Path Archeology Calden is accessible all year round.
background
The eco paths in North Hesse should encourage you to deal with the varied and interesting history of the region. A total of 32 eco paths have been set up in the Kassel district and two in the Schwalm-Eder district.
In December 2009 the Eco Path Archeology Calden joined the extensive network of Eco paths North Hesse added. The hiking route was meanwhile from HWGHV awarded as a "certified hiking trail".
getting there
By car
Straight through Calden run the federal highway 
(kassel-Calden-Warburg) and the state road L 3214 (Calden-Zierenberg-Wolfhagen-Fritzlar), as well as several district roads. The next motorway junctions are the 
66 Breuna the 
(kassel-Dortmund), the 77 Kassel North the 
(Hanover-Wurzburg) and the 4 Kassel-Waldau the 
(kassel-to water). The official starting points for a hike on the eco path are the 1 Parking lot at Schloss Wilhelmsthal and the 2 Parking lot on Hegenweg, 1 Café by the lake, as well as unofficially the 3 Lindenrondell car park for hikers.
With public transport
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By Calden drive the bus routes 46, 47, 100, 130, 132 and 133. Not far from the Eco Path Archeology Calden are located 4 
Wilhelmsthal Castle (Line 47), the 5 school (Lines 132 and 133), the 6 Kaiserplatz (Lines 47, 132 and 133) and the 7 Wilhelmsthaler Strasse (Lines 47, 132 and 133).
Route description
The Eco Path Archeology Calden is marked in both directions, the circular path is described below in clockwise direction. For a detailed hiking map, please simply click on the POIs that will immediately direct you to the described position. The start of the eco path is at the Schloss Wilhelmsthal car park on Kreisstraße 46 between Calden and Wilhelmsthal.
From the parking lot at Schloss Wilhelmsthal, the starting point of the Eco Path Archeology Calden, you first cross the county road 46 and then walk either on the asphalt avenue of linden trees, or next to it on meadow paths, always straight up to the circular linden tree south of Calden.
- 1 The zoo - The forest area southwest of Calden was part of a wildlife park of the same name, which was established in 1772 under Landgrave Friedrich II of Hesse-kassel was created for hunting purposes, had a total area of 530 hectares and extended to the lawn avenue. Various wild animals were kept in the zoo, which were caught alive in other forest areas and released again in the wildlife park. The starting point and meeting place of the courtly hunts was the linden ring at the entrance to the zoo. To this day, the zoo has been traversed by geometrically arranged aisles starting at three points of intersection. The legend of the rider without a head, who has been up to mischief in the zoo since 1762, is known nationwide. Further information on the zoo can be found at www.geschichte-calden.de.
After half-rounding the circular linden tree, you hike on a gravel forest path through the zoo to the Meimbresser Grund, briefly along the edge of the forest and straight ahead, slightly uphill, deeper into the zoo. A little later, a branch path branches off to the south to the Bronze Age barrow station.
- 2 Bronze Age tumulus - In the area of the former wildlife park there are several prehistoric burial mounds, circular elevations with a depression on the top, which were plundered by grave robbers. They probably come from the so-called Barrow Bronze Age (1,500 - 1,200 BC), a section of the Bronze Age (2,000 - 750 BC). After the dead person was laid unburned in a tree coffin or on a death bed on the forest floor, the bereaved covered the grave with a pile of stones and poured a mound of earth over it. A dry stone wall was also built around the hill so that the earth could not drain. Many mounds were used for subsequent burials generations later, but this time mostly as cremation burials in a grave urn.
Follow the markings of the eco path back to the main path and continue walking west a few meters uphill to the Jagdstern, where there is also a wooden bench right next to the information board for the eco path.
- 3 Jagdstern - At the forest site, also known as the "Sababurger Runt", six radially arranged aisles meet, cut only for hunting and named after the localities Arolsen, Shafts, Röddenhof, Wilhelmsthal, Harleshausen and Dörnberg. The courtly hunts carried out in the zoo did not primarily serve to procure meat, but for the pleasure and self-portrayal of the prince or hunter and were a welcome opportunity to cultivate political connections. Most of the time, the "par force hunt" method was used, a hunt that was already considered cruel at the time, in which a single animal was driven through the forest for several hours. Obviously, this form of hunting was not so popular with the Landgraves of Hessen-Kassel, but compared to other royal courts, relatively little money was spent on parforce hunting.
From the Jagdstern you follow the gravel forest path to its end at a crossroads with hiking signs and wooden benches, where you turn north and walk straight ahead on an initially graveled and later paved forest path past a water container to the edge of the forest of the zoo. Shortly afterwards, the reconstructed gallery grave Calden II is reached via a gravel path.
- 4 Gallery tomb Calden II - The gallery grave Calden II was built in the 32nd century BC. Built until the 29th century BC. Used and completely archaeologically investigated from 1990 to 1992. Both Calden gallery graves, also called passage graves or stone chamber graves, consist of paired wall stones and a keystone, as well as probably a perforated door stone in the entrance area. Quartzite boulders were placed on the wall stones as a cover and a mound of earth was poured over the entire grave. In the gallery grave Calden II, around 200 people were buried, both small children and adults of all ages. Apart from personal items, no other additions were placed in the grave, only food and libations were placed by the bereaved in the entrance area in front of the burial chamber.
After just a few meters on a gravel farm road in a northerly direction, you have reached the next station on the Eco Path Archeology Calden.
- 5 The Neolithic earthworks of Calden - In 1976, aerial photographs revealed the traces of a double grave, which is a Neolithic earthwork dating from around 3,700 BC. Was built. The trenches are interrupted in seven places by foundation trenches of wooden, house-like fixtures. The size and construction of these fixtures are so far unique in European prehistory. Inside the earthwork there were no traces of a settlement, but a more recent urn grave field from the Hallstatt period (around 800 BC). The earthwork was built by farmers from the surrounding villages, who probably used it as a sanctuary or place of worship. Found animal bones, deer antler remains and human bones point to this. The earthworks were used, with interruptions, for 1,800 years, from the 37th to the 19th century BC. Chr.
You now walk across the area of the Neolithic earthwork, which has been marked by four stone steles since 2006. First you hike slightly downhill in the direction of the old airport, before you turn into a gravel farm road in a north-easterly direction, which you continue downhill to Calden will follow into it and from which you have a beautiful view over Calden away until Reinhardswald Has. On the Hegenweg past the Café by the lakeAnother starting point of the eco path, you reach a crossroads and turn sharply to the right into the forest road, via which you can exit again Calden wanders out. After a while, the eco path branches off again to the east and leads down to the Calde, from which you can reach the gallery grave Calden I on Weserstraße, which is located opposite the central school, via a branch path.
- 6 Gallery tomb Calden I - The gallery grave Calden I was built in the 34th century BC. Built in BC, used as a burial place for 200 years and archaeologically examined in 1948. The stones in the gallery grave were discovered while plowing in 1947 on the field of farmer Georg Lückel west of Calden and built into an ensemble at their current location. Even before its discovery, the grave was badly damaged by people who settled in the first centuries AD and interventions in the Middle Ages. In contrast to Gallery Grave II, additions in the form of arrowheads, the last remains of bows and arrows, and ceramics were found in Gallery Grave I. The latter allow a fairly precise dating of the grave, according to which it was between 3,500 and 3,400 BC. Was created.
Back down to the Calde you now walk on a pleasant meadow path through the Meimbresser Grund uphill past the forest swimming pool back to the zoo. You hike back to the circular linden tree and over the linden alley to Wilhelmsthal Castle, where you finally arrive again after eight kilometers via the gravel forest paths known from the beginning of the hike.
trips
Wilhelmsthal Castle
Before or after a hike on the Eco Path Archeology Calden, a visit to Wilhelmsthal Castle south of Calden. It was used as a pleasure palace for the from 1743 to 1761 Hessian Built by Landgrave Wilhelm VIII, is one of the most important Rococo castles north of the Mains and can be viewed every full hour as part of daily guided tours. The adjoining castle park with water features has been part of the European Garden Heritage Network since 2009 and is freely accessible all year round. More information at www.museum-kassel.de.
Eco Path Intellectual History Thinking Paths I - III Grebenstein
The Eco Path Spiritual History Thinking Paths I - III Grebenstein consists of the Thinking Path I (From Heraklit to Wittgenstein), the Thinking Path II (Morgenländischer Weg) and the Thinking Path III (Literary Parcours; from Homer to Handke), which together are barely a kilometer long . They all run near the castle hill with the Grebenstein castle ruins, from which one has a beautiful view of the region. Grebenstein and the eco path can be reached via the county road K 47 and the federal highway 
, or with the bus routes 130 and 133 to market.
Eco path ancestor
The Eco path ancestor leads over a length of nine kilometers from Ahnatal-Weimar along the Ahne to Vellmar-Lower Vellmar. Stations along the way provide information about the Kassel sea sand, the railway (Obervellmar railway line–Volkmarsen), the forest smithy, the mills in Heckershausen, the Thielemann smithy, the Obervellmar swimming pool, the mills in Vellmar, the Ahnepark and the Brandgassen in Niedervellmar. You can reach the eco path for ancestors from Calden from across the county road K 46 and the state road L 3217 (Lawn avenue). By bus or train you go either via Fürstenwald (lines 46, 133 and RT4) or Espenau (lines 47 and 1).
Eco path archeology Dörnberg
The Eco path archeology Dörnberg runs over a length of ten kilometers over the barely forested plateau of the Hohen Dörnberg. Stops are the presumed castle on the Helfenstein, the Hohlestein near Ahnatal-Weimar, the Wallanlangen on the Dörnberg and Burg Blumenstein on the Wichtelkirche. The eco path Archeology Dörnberg can be reached from Calden from across the state road L 3214 and the county road K 97 or with the Bus route 117 to Nature Park Center. For the latter variant, take the bus lines beforehand 46 or 133 to Bf. Fürstenwald and on with the RT4 to Zierenberg.
Web links
- Official website via the eco paths from the Kassel district.
