The best hikes from bus stations around Zarrentin am Schaalsee

Seasonal opening hours: April/May: Friday to Sunday and on public holidays from 11 am June - October: open daily from 11 am | except Tuesday (closed day)

The island of Stintenburg, with its imposing manor house, is a place shrouded in mystery with a highly eventful history. Until after the fall of the Berlin Wall, few of the people living in the restricted area during the GDR era suspected that the secret elite unit of the GDR border troops was trained in the manor house until 1986: professional officers armed with dual weapons, service dogs, and motorcycles to guard the inner-German border in the immediate vicinity. The island has a long history as a noble residence. Owners such as the Counts of Schwerin, the von Lützow and von Bülow families, Duchess Christine Margarete of Mecklenburg (1615–1666), and the von Hammerstein family called it home. In 1740, the estate came into the possession of Count Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff (1712–1772), whose family remained the lords of the manor until the 20th century and who have occupied it again since the 1990s, after the restitution. The manor house was built starting in 1810 for the Danish branch of the von Bernstorff family. The center of the nine-axis, neoclassical plastered building with its high hipped roof is emphasized by a restrained central projection. The facade of the impressive house is clearly and strictly structured by stacked windows on the first two floors. https://www.denkmalschutz.de/denkmal/stintenburg.html

Stintenburg. A sea eagle circles over deep blue water, the trees to the left and right of the cobblestone avenue cast thick shadows, and once you cross the small bridge to the island in the Schaalsee, see the red bridge house on your left and the manor house in the distance in the park, this seems like the perfect place to forget the problems of the world. The poet Gottlieb Klopstock described the island as an "island of happier solitude" in his ode "Stintenburg" in 1767 after a visit. It's hard to imagine that German history, with all its shoals, is focused like a magnifying glass right here on the 400-meter-long and 190-meter-wide island. Perfect material for a Hollywood film – after all, there's now a book that documents the multifaceted history. https://www.ln-online.de/kultur/regional/was-die-stasi-auf-der-insel-stintenburg-trieb-73FITHSMMMB7PQFHLOO4OFIAAU.html

Very friendly - even though it was closed, I was allowed to use the terrace as shelter for over an hour and eat what I had brought with me.

Small pier for rowing boats, a quite romantic place with a beautiful view of the lake

The Cistercian monastery in Zarrentin am Schaalsee was founded in 1246 and dissolved in 1553. The building houses a permanent exhibition in the cloister, which has a direct connection to the monastery and its history. Originally, the monastery complex, together with the Zarrentin Church, formed a closed, slightly trapezoidal rectangle with a four-sided cloister surrounding the inner courtyard. This contained the nuns' cemetery. The buildings of the south and west wings were described as dilapidated as early as 1576 and demolished soon thereafter. The Gothic east wing, whose long side runs parallel to the shore of Lake Schaalsee, has survived to this day. The cross-ribbed vaults, some with elaborately designed keystones and consoles, are completely preserved. Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_Zarrentin

The approximately 1.2 km long waterfront promenade runs from the bathing establishment to the church and monastery complex. Along the way, there are boat rentals and passenger boat rides, as well as a restaurant, snack bar, and hotel. Piers with beautiful boathouses along the entire route complete the picture of this idyllic waterfront promenade.

The UNESCO Schaalsee Biosphere Reserve lies between the metropolitan areas of Hamburg, Lübeck, and Schwerin. The 24-square-kilometer Schaalsee was formed by glaciers during the last Ice Age and is one of the deepest lakes in Germany. Islands, bays, and extensive reed beds characterize the Schaalsee. The lake's rich flora and fauna is a result of its history: During the division of Germany, the inner-German border ran through the lake, allowing nature to develop largely undisturbed. Today, hiking and cycling trails lead through beech and marsh forests, moors and wet meadows, commercial forests, pastures, and fields.