Kölner Weg - Stage 9 - Old town of Hachenburg and city forest to Unnau-Korb

Start: Hachenburg railway station

(S) At the station in Hachenburg, turn left, follow the K sign and walk up Bahnhofstraße to Neumarkt. Here, turn left and continue to Wilhelmstraße.

(1) Our route takes us to the Old Market, which is picturesquely framed by magnificently restored half-timbered houses from the 17th and 18th centuries. Here you will also find Germany's oldest stone inn, the Hotel Zur Krone.

The inn was built in 1439, renovated in the late Renaissance style in 1531 and given a stone bay window. The current gable dates from 1585 and is decorated with a Moor's head. The building was also the seat of the Femegericht, which was housed in the bay window room on the first floor. Next to the Hotel Zur Krone, you can visit the Catholic Church of the Assumption, originally a Franciscan church, which was built between 1734 and 1738, extended between 1907 and 1909 and given a tower. in 1738, the Archbishop of Prague, Count von Manderscheid-Blankenheim, donated the wooden high altar. Beneath the church is a monks' crypt with 19 gravestones dating from 1754 to 1811.

A little further away is the Protestant castle church, which is connected to the castle by an archway. The tower and choir date from the 15th century, while the nave was built in 1775.

In the middle of the market square, the gilded, double-tailed lion, symbol of the connection between the House of Sayn and the House of Wittgenstein, sits enthroned on the fountain.

We continue along Friedrichstraße, passing old half-timbered houses.

(2) At the end of the street, we reach the castle.

The first castle was built between 1180 and 1212. It was partially destroyed in the devastating town fire of 13 October 1654, and Count Georg Ludwig and his son Wilhelm Ludwig had a new castle built on the site between 1716 and 1746. The baroque castle, consisting of five wings, is grouped in a horseshoe shape around the inner courtyard and the extensive castle gardens behind it. The oldest parts date back to the 16th century. The castle is not open to the public.

We cross the Alexanderring/Leipziger Straße intersection and walk through the castle gardens.

(3) Here we pass the stone coffin grave from Oberzeuzheim. Soon after, we come to Am Burggarten street and the Westerwald Landscape Museum.

The main building of the Landscape Museum is the former baroque hunting lodge of the Counts of Sayn-Hachenburg. It houses the museum's geological, mineralogical and early historical collections. The remaining buildings are laid out in the form of an open-air museum. Among other things, you can visit a barn, a bakery, an oil mill and a village school.

(4) We then cross Leipziger Straße and, after a short stretch along Dehlinger Weg, reach Adolphweg. At the end of this road, we take a flight of steps to a roundabout, cross the L288, turn into Alte Frankfurter Straße, pass the Landgasthaus Hormann, then the hospital, and leave the town behind us. Looking back, we see the castle rising above the town once again.

(5) Then the forest takes us in and a little later we walk past the Helenenruh refuge.
We walk through the forest.

(6) Then we see the village of Gehlert on the right and turn left, walking along the edge of the forest. Shortly afterwards, we turn right and head towards the Hachenburg wind turbine. Before the wind turbine, we turn left and roam through the extensive Hachenburg city forest until we reach the L288.

(7) We cross this road. From now on, we walk through the Alpenroder Forest. Finally, we come to a crossroads and discover a barbecue hut in the forest on the left. Our path continues straight ahead and turns right at the next crossroads.

(8) After a long hike, we leave the forest shortly before Dehlingen. A beautiful view opens up of the villages in the Nister Valley and the Stöffel, a former 492-metre-high basalt cone located between the Enspeler Bach and the Nister (see stage 11).

Then we turn left, walk downhill towards Dehlingen, but soon turn left again, enter a forest and continue downhill. After a right and a left turn, we come to the outskirts of Dehlingen on the right.

(9) However, we turn left and continue in the Hirzbachtal valley. In this area to the left of the Hirzbach, copper, lead and iron ore were mined in the Urwald mine from 1869 to 1900. The area has since been reforested.

(10) Finally, we come to a railway bridge spanning the Hirzbach. We walk under the bridge, approach an asphalt path, turn right just before it and continue along the railway line on a forest path. The path leaves the forest, turns left, crosses the L281 and the Nister.

We now approach Korb on a small asphalt road. The first houses of Korb appear ahead of us. The Wäschbach stream accompanies us on the right, which was the border between the counties of Sayn-Hachenburg and Nassau-Oranien until 1818. After a short distance, the Kölner Weg comes to a fork and turns left uphill. If we continue straight ahead, we reach the Unnau-Korb railway station after about 500 metres. (E)

Getting there
Getting
Car/parking:
Starting point: large car park at Hachenburg railway station;
End point: limited parking at Unnau-Korb railway station

Public
Starting point: RE9/S12 to Au (Sieg) and then take the private railway towards Limburg to Hachenburg;
End point: take the private railway to Au (Sieg) and continue with the RE9 or S12

Route profile:
The stage initially runs through Hachenburg, later on wide paths through extensive forests. The stage is also suitable for sporty cyclists to a limited extent.

Source: Der Kölner Weg – A hike in 17 stages – by Evert Everts in collaboration with Erhard Schönberg

Refreshments/accommodation:
Hotel Friedrich, Graf-Heinrich-Straße 2, 57627 Hachenburg
Hotel Zur Krone, Alter Markt 3, 57627 Hachenburg
Gasthaus zum weißen Roß, Alter Markt 7, 57627 Hachenburg
Landgasthaus Hormann, Alte Frankfurter Str. 1, 57627 Hachenburg

Along the way:
Market square and Hachenburg Castle (1) and (2)
Westerwald Landscape Museum, Leipziger Straße 1, 57627 Hachenburg (4)