Hostel is a picturesque half-timbered village, with a group of splendid houses clustered around the village green. When choosing a place to stay, the village’s history, heritage conservation and hiking trails come together as different themes. The Chapel of the Three Holy Moors and St. Hubertus represents the village’s architectural history; the Eickser Busch and the cultural landscape area offer a perspective on its paths and open spaces.
Chapel, Village Green and Cultural Landscape
The Chapel of the Three Holy Moors and St. Hubertus in Hostel is an important historic monument. Its tower dates from the late Romanesque period, around the year 1200; the chapel was consecrated in 1492. In 2006, it received the Rhineland Monument Award. Frankenring is also a protected cultural heritage site. At the same time, Hostel is a significant cultural landscape area in the Cologne Regional Plan. This area includes permanently preserved fields and paths. In this way, individual buildings and the village’s appearance form part of a larger, likewise protected landscape.
Hiking and Roman Traces
The 7.8-kilometre-long “Eickser Busch” hiking trail passes through Hostel. The 2024 regional hiking map describes the EifelSchleife “Eickser Busch” as a 7.9-kilometre route with a walking time of two hours and 103 metres of elevation gain; it lists the VIA Mansio / K20 hiking car park in Mechernich as the starting point. The two similarly named trails therefore offer different points of reference: one passes through Hostel, while the EifelSchleife also has a stated walking time, elevation gain and starting point.
On 5 August 2026, the City of Mechernich described the Eickser Busch as a diverse mixed forest, not a monoculture. A Roman road passed through Hostel more than 2,000 years ago. Four covered information boards were installed along the Roman Way between Eicks and Hostel, as reported by the City of Mechernich on 5 August 2026. The details about the ancient road and the Roman Way offer two distinct historical points of reference for exploring the area.
Village Chronicle and Festival History
Hostel’s village chronicle is more than 130 pages long. It was compiled collaboratively from memories, photographs and stories from residents’ family archives. In this way, it brings together different personal contributions to the village’s history.
Past celebrations are also part of Hostel’s village history. At “Teichfest Revival 2.0” on 22 August 2026, an earlier annual village festival tradition around the former fire pond was revived in Hostel. The programme at the village square on Frankenring included food, coffee and cake, a children’s programme, bingo and live music. The Hostel courtyard festival was held for the sixth time in 2025.
In the wider destination of Mechernich
The wider destination of Mechernich offers further, independent cultural and leisure attractions. The LVR Open-Air Museum Kommern – Rhineland Museum of Folklore – uses around 75 buildings to provide insights into rural life from the 15th to the 19th century. These include farmhouses, windmills, workshops and village community buildings. Another Roman connection is the Eifel Aqueduct: it was probably built at the end of the first century AD, is one of the largest Roman structures north of the Alps, and runs for more than 25 km through the Mechernich municipal area.
The “Mechernicher 8” concept connects sights and leisure facilities via two circular routes that can be combined. The historic centre of Kommern is ideal for a leisurely stroll and includes the Rhineland’s largest continuous ensemble of half-timbered houses, a castle dating from the 15th to the 18th century, a Neo-Gothic church and numerous places to eat and drink. Individual buildings may have their own access restrictions.
Discover more destinations: Lorbach, Antweiler, Weyer, Glehn, Holzheim.
View the wider travel guide: Mechernich.
