History of Locks Route 2 Shores 3 Bridges

The Route
Kembs (marina or Town Hall square)

Route: Niffer – Petit-Landau (church) – Hombourg - Ruins of Buttenheim - possible detour by the St-Martin Farm – Abbey Church of Ottmarsheim – Bantzenheim – Chalampé – Chalampé Bridge/Neuenburg am Rhein – Bad Bellingen – Blansingen – Huttingen – Istein – Märkt Dam/Village Neuf – Kembs

Quality: sandy and paved paths, road

The parking lot of the Kembs marina, with its typical drawbridge, marks the starting point of this circuit. Following the canal, it will take you from Huningue northward, passing by the locks of the Rhine-Rhône Canal at Niffer and from there to Petit-Landau, before heading towards Hombourg. Shortly after Petit-Landau, you will see on your left the St-Martin Farm, with its small chapel and the old brickworks (brick dryer), which was in operation until the end of the 19th century. Two kilometers later, on your left, in a grove in the middle of the fields, you will discover the ruins of the medieval castle of Buttenheim (11th/12th century). From there, you have an unobstructed view of the Markgräflerland, a wine-growing, horticultural, and market gardening region, and the foothills of the mountain. In the background, behind the wooded hills, rises the Hochblauen (1165 m).

At the intersection of D 468 and the communal road of Petit-Landau, there is a small restored chapel. From there, you return towards the small town and turn left towards Hombourg. It was the Habsburgs who built this fortress at Buttenheim at the same time as the Abbey Church of Ottmarsheim (11th/12th century), but it was the counts of Andlau who were its last occupants in the 16th century. From Hombourg, the route leads you through fields towards Ottmarsheim and its Abbey Church of Saints Peter and Paul, built in 1030 by Rudolph von Altenburg, an ancestor of the Habsburgs. Then, you will cross the village with its old half-timbered houses and head north, passing through Bantzenheim and Chalampé, to cross the Rhine at Neuenburg am Rhein. On the road to Bad Bellingen via Steinenstadt, you will see a chapel renowned for its miraculous cross, the Heilig-Kreuz-Kapelle (Holy Cross Chapel) of Neuenburg, dating from the 13th century. After Bad Bellingen, the path climbs to join the old Roman road which offers a splendid view of the entire Rhine plain and the Black Forest. From there, you pass through Bamlach and arrive at Blansingen, where you can admire a church decorated with 12th-century frescoes. Then, you continue towards Huttingen before descending to Istein, where you find the Veit’s Kapelle and the Istein Rock (Isteiner Klotz) before returning to the dam at Märkt.
Cross the dam and continue on the Rhine Island until the Kembs lock and its hydroelectric plant.