Theme Tour 5 – Places of Power

You hike through the Kermeter, a heart of the Eifel National Park, alternating through mixed deciduous, spruce, oak and beech forests. Halfway through the tour you cross pastures and meadows and continue along the Heimbach reservoir. Here you can take a detour to Hengebach Castle, which sits high on a rocky spur above Heimbach. At the end of the route you walk along an old Way of the Cross that leads along the Ruppenbach up to the Mariawald Monastery.

Both the Mariawald monastery and its honorary cemetery, as well as the Art Nouveau power plant in Heimbach are also worth a visit. The monastery was the only male branch Trappist monastery in Germany.

You can also shorten the tour. You can find more details under the “Directions” tab.

Tip:
Why not visit the Mariawald Monastery and try the nationally famous pea soup.

Directions:
From the abbey car park, walk uphill towards the Ehrenfriedhof. Follow sign T5. Then it goes through the Herbstbachtal down to the Heimbach reservoir. Attention: If you want to walk the entire tour, do not go downhill along the Herbstbach, but keep heading west and continue running parallel to the slope towards the Art Nouveau power plant and Schwammenauel. If you take the shortcut you will come directly to the reservoir and from there you can walk back to Mariawald Abbey via Heimbach.

Signposting: T5 and T5 short (abbreviation)