Wolfhagen - Enjoy nature, experience culture, plan your leisure time in a historical town with half-timbered buildings in the fairytale land of the Brothers Grimm
The town of Wolfhagen with more than 14,000 inhabitants in 12 boroughs invites you to discover many historical, well restored and maintained half-timbered houses, squares, and winding alleys in the 775-year-old town centre. Friends of fairy tales, hikes, bike touring and nature will be fully satisfied here. Also culture is nurtured and cherished here with a number of large and smaller events throughout the entire year.
Over the years, the Wolfhagen cultural tent has developed into one of the largest supra-regional small-scale performing art festivals. Every year about 10,000 visitors make a pilgrimage to the town park pond meadows to hear and see leading artists.
Wolfhagen for friends of fairy tales
With its town fairy tale ”The wolf and the seven young kids”, placed pictorially on the "fairy tale fountain" in the market and presented in "Grimm's fairy tale cellar" in the old city hall, Wolfhagen belongs in the league of towns in which fairy tales, sagas and legends are at home. The picture of the old town is primarily shaped by historical half-timbered houses, the Gothic town church St. Anna from the 13th century, the "Old Watch" (today a café) and the "Old City Hall" (today a hotel and restaurant) from the 17th century. The position of Wolfhagen is ideal as starting point for hikes and excursions into the region.
The fairytale fountain on the market place sports a life-sized bronze wolf whose belly is filled with stones, and the seventh goat standing on the fountain edge. In “Grimm's fairytale cellar" in the old city hall with reproductions of pictures from Ludwig Emil Grimm, a large carved opened book of fairy tales made of wood with a printed town fairy tale and a text table in the entrance area is a popular venue for weddings in an enchanting atmosphere. (Tour only after previous agreement)
Wolfhagen for holiday tourists and day visitors
People are becoming more aware of nature. They want to live healthier. Who then can be surprised that hiking and bike touring is once again “IN”! The landscape around Wolfhagen equally offers strollers, passionate hikers and cyclist enthusiasts ideal possibilities to pursue their sport. Selected hiking and biking routes for the practiced and less practiced lead along brooks and meadow valleys, through extended pine and hardwood forests, to ponds and lakes, castles and palaces. A highlight is the quality hiking path Habicht forest trail with the extra tour H7, but many other additional hiking and bicycle paths invite you to explore the Wolfhagen countryside. Additional information material and maps on all hiking and cycling routes are available in our Tourist Information Office and on our homepage.
The Gothic hall church St. Anna, the regional museum with a permanent exhibition about Wolfhagen’s most famous citizen, the Brazil explorer “Hans Staden", the moated castle Elmarshausen with its Trakehner stud farm, the Weidelsburg at Ippinghausen and much more wait to be discovered. Wolfhagen can best be explored with a historical guided tour of the town.
Free town guided tours every Saturday from April to September at 11 am, meeting place is the fairytale fountain on the market place.
Group tours: by arrangement
Guided topical tours:
• Night watchman guided tour: more amusing, evening round tour through the old town.
• Guided tour of the half-timbered buildings and the ruins for children and adults
• Mediaeval journey through the Wolfhagen cuisine
• Adventure guided tour with “Agnes von Bürgeln”
• Bus guided tours