Discover old streets

Hiking on historical paths

In the immediate vicinity of the Externsteine, you will find a
variety of road layouts from different historical
periods. These traffic-historical monuments
have been connected in the forest to create a circular route
suitable for families as well. The connection
between human effort and
natural conditions is uniquely
visible.
There, the mountain is seen as an obstacle to be overcome for
medieval traffic, experienced in the form of a sunken road.
This impressive section of the trail dates back at least
to the 13th century and had to be cut deep into the rock
so that medieval wagons
could cross the summit of the Große Egge.

Further below, the visitor will find the
original preserved
stretch of a
19th-century road, easily recognizable as an elevated
embankment road,
which still today, with its special foundation
of stone layers, protects the hiker
from wet potholes.
Further back, you come across
the former route of the
northern part of the medieval
Hellweg, known as the
"Cologne Road",
which later became the Reichsstrasse
1. On this road
edge, in the 20th century, were
the tracks of the first
German mountain railway
from Paderborn
through the Externsteine to
Detmold.

Traveling in earlier centuries

We have researched the development of the road system
and supplemented it with relevant sources on the experience of travel,
the earliest traffic rules, or the collection
of duties and tolls. From this came informative
texts combined with historical photos,
which give each visitor a unique insight into
centuries of human interaction with their natural
environment. This
text-image combination informs visitors at the site about
the cultural-historical monuments and their backgrounds.