Hohensaaten between waterways and village history

Explore Hohensaaten through its waterways and the history of the village. Several waterways meet here, while the Protestant village church and the local history society’s exhibition each tell a different side of the place. This gives you a clear choice when planning your trip: water sports, a cycling route, landscape, or cultural history.

Waterways and Cycling Route

Two modern locks connect the waterways near Hohensaaten with the Oder. The village is particularly popular with water sports enthusiasts and can be experienced from the water. Water is therefore both part of the local infrastructure and a defining feature of the place.

The Oder–Neiße Cycle Route offers a different perspective: from Hohensaaten, it continues into the Lower Oder Valley National Park. This is a specific route in addition to the waterways, and helps you consider Hohensaaten as a cycling destination. The route also indicates its continuation into the Lower Oder Valley National Park and can be considered as a separate aspect of a trip alongside the area’s waterways.

Village History in the Church and Exhibition

The Protestant village church was built in the neo-Gothic style between 1858 and 1860. This precisely dated building stands alongside the local history society’s exhibition, which tells the story of how the village has changed. Housed in a former stable on Dorfstraße in Hohensaaten, it gives visitors insights into the village’s past as a fishing community and, later, a boatmen’s village.

The highlight of the exhibition is a 90-centimeter-long mammoth bone from the Hohensaaten gravel pit. This find adds a distinct feature to the history of the former fishing community and later boatmen’s village.

Water and Forest as Landscape Themes

The forests surrounding Hohensaaten include the Lunower Bauernheide. The landscape thus brings together two distinct features: the waterways that meet near Hohensaaten and this named forest area. You can consider these elements alongside the cycling route and historical themes when getting to know the place.

Bad Freienwalde (Oder) as a Separate Context

The wider destination of Bad Freienwalde (Oder) includes Freienwalde Castle and its adjoining castle park among its sights. Neuenhagen Castle, also in this wider destination, was built in 1575 by the noble family von Uchtenhagen as a so-called “fortified house.” This architectural style was a transitional form that emerged in the 16th century between the medieval noble castle and the later castle-like manor house. In Bad Freienwalde, the red Gothic brick walls of St. Nicholas Church partly rest on fieldstones from the predecessor building, erected in the 13th century. The Bismarck Tower near Bad Freienwalde also has a clearly dated visitor history: after a complete restoration, it reopened to visitors in 1995.

The moor experience garden in the Mühlenfließaue in Bad Freienwalde features a Kneipp path where you can wade barefoot through cold water, as well as a mini barefoot trail. Children can enjoy a barefoot visit to the water playground there. Since 2005, the tower hiking trail near Bad Freienwalde has been a 12-kilometer section of the Oderlandweg, with a total elevation gain of 490 meters. It connects four observation towers and several viewpoints along the Barnim ridge.

For an overview of the wider destination: Bad Freienwalde.