Discover Dasburg through two distinct hiking trails and its local history. Nature Park Southern Eifel Hiking Trail No. 8 is a moderately challenging circular route, while Trail No. 9 focuses on the Our, the river that forms the border. Castle ruins, a plague chapel and a short audio tour add historical insights to the hiking experience.
Hiking in the Our Valley
Nature Park Southern Eifel Hiking Trail No. 8 is a moderately challenging 10.7 km circular route starting and ending in the centre of Dasburg. It leads through Dasburg and along the Our Valley, through the winding valley and back to Dasburg via hillside forests. Its specified length, circular route and start and finish in the village provide a clear basis for choosing a hike connected to the local area.
Trail No. 8 highlights Dasburg Castle’s ruins, with views over the Our Valley, and presents Dasburg as a historic village of craftspeople. The bunker trail in the Our Valley and Rellesmühle mill, with its fish ladder, are also near the hiking trail. These destinations offer different points of interest: the castle ruins connect the trail with the village’s character, while the bunker trail and Rellesmühle introduce other themes in the surrounding area.
Nature Park Southern Eifel Hiking Trail No. 9 follows the Our, the river that forms the border, close to the banks for roughly half its length and halfway up the hillside for the other half. The routes therefore differ in their layout as described: No. 8 is the moderately challenging 10.7 km circular route starting and ending in the village centre, while No. 9 is defined by its alternating course along the river and above the banks. If you are particularly interested in hiking along the Our’s banks, Trail No. 9 offers a different focus from the circular route No. 8.
Another trail with a historical connection is “From Grey to Green”: it starts in the Eifel village of Dasburg on the Our and follows the former Westwall, built during the Nazi era. Alongside the nature and village trails, this adds a route with a clearly stated historical connection.
Local History and the Chapel
The audio tour through Dasburg’s village centre and castle grounds is a short route with 10 stops. Visitors can hear entertaining information about the eventful history of the village and castle at each stop. If you would like to explore the history in greater depth, you can think of this walk alongside the hiking trails: here, the village centre and castle grounds take centre stage, while the trails focus on the landscape of the Our Valley. A walk along the surrounding wall of Dasburg Castle is also worth seeing.
The municipality of Dasburg’s membership in the Route Gottfried von Bouillon association is part of the cross-border cultural history. The association aims to introduce the public to historic buildings in the border region of Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Rhineland-Palatinate. This connects Dasburg’s local history with a broader perspective on the built heritage of this border region.
Another detail of local history is the plague chapel’s altarpiece. It probably dates from the 17th century; a 20 cm-tall Late Gothic wooden Madonna stands in a glass case. A local legend about the plague chapel tells that a carved wooden statue of the Virgin Mary was found on the rock three times before the chapel was built there. The artwork and the legend offer different perspectives: the altarpiece points to a specific furnishing, while the legend tells how the chapel came to be built.
More Destinations in the Eifelkreis Bitburg-PrĂĽm
Other towns in the wider Eifelkreis Bitburg-Prüm destination have their own points of interest. The Mühlenberger Stollen Bleialf visitor mine includes a mining trail with numerous information boards about the area’s mining history. One-hour tours of the Mühlenberger Stollen cover ore mining in Bleialf, from geology to applied technology. As visitor information varies by season, it is advisable to check the latest details before your visit.
The Devonium in Waxweiler presents complex concepts in palaeontology and the science of fossil life in an engaging way. The Westwall Museum houses a military history exhibition across three accessible levels of a bunker, as well as in underground passages and rooms. The water castle of Rittersdorf, around 700 years old, has remained almost unchanged since it was built and offers an impressive picture of late medieval and Renaissance residential culture. The castle also has a privately run restaurant serving fine regional cuisine; check its current opening information before dining there.
Discover more destinations: Preischeid, LĂĽtzkampen, Leidenborn, Lambertsberg, Lauperath, GroĂźkampenberg, Lierfeld, Lichtenborn.
View the wider travel guide: Arzfeld.
