Fürstenberg/Havel: Waterways and Town History

You can explore Fürstenberg/Havel during your stay from two different perspectives: its waterways and its town history. An easy canoe tour around the old town takes a clearly defined amount of time, while exhibitions and historic sites offer other ways to discover the town. When planning your trip, you can decide first whether you’d like to focus mainly on paddling, explore the town’s history, or combine the two.

Waterways around the old town

The Gänse, Priester, and Schul Havel rivers are navigable along their entire lengths via the Fisch-Kanu-Pass. An easy canoe tour around the old town is 2.3 kilometres long and takes about an hour. The distance and approximate duration give you specific points of reference for planning your day: you can fit the tour into your stay as a clearly defined activity, and the time estimate helps you make room for other interests as well.

The Fisch-Kanu-Pass itself is also a notable feature for anyone interested in waterways, thanks to its dimensions. At 50 metres long, it is the largest fish-canoe pass in Brandenburg; the height difference is 1.60 metres. The tour and the pass highlight different aspects of the waterways: the route around the old town, and the length and height difference of the structure.

Town history in exhibitions

The Fürstenberg/Havel Local History Exhibition at Markt 5 offers insight into the town’s development over the centuries through audio documents, maps, and objects from its history. The different materials offer a variety of ways to explore this long period. A replica of the Fürstenberg Gold Treasure is also on display in the exhibition rooms. The gold treasure was found in 2008 during construction work on Brandenburger Straße, near the castle. The exhibition thus brings together a broader view of the town’s history and the story of a specific discovery.

Another historic landmark is the Old Castle. Once a moated castle, it is the town’s oldest building, with parts still preserved. This brief description links the building as it stands today with its former role as a moated castle.

The railway ferry is also one of the town’s historic sites. It was raised from the water in 2013 on behalf of the town of Fürstenberg/Havel and treated with corrosion protection. It has remained on land ever since, where you can view it up close. Before visiting, check whether this is still the case.

Town tours and planning your visit

If you’d like to explore Fürstenberg/Havel with a guide, guided tours are available through the historic streets. Nature tours visit the surrounding lakes and forests. Each type of tour has a different focus: the town tour centres on the history of the streets, while the nature tours explore the landscape around the town. Contact the Tourist Information Office for dates and bookings.

Commemorating Ravensbrück

The Ravensbrück Memorial is an open educational site on the shore of Lake Schwedtsee, in the former village of Ravensbrück. Its permanent exhibition, “The Ravensbrück Women’s Concentration Camp – History and Remembrance,” covers the history and post-history of the Ravensbrück women’s concentration camp during the Nazi era. Its focus is therefore on the history of the camp and its remembrance, in contrast to the town-history perspective of the exhibition at Markt.

The places and activities mentioned offer different ways to plan your trip: an easy-to-schedule canoe tour, town history through exhibition objects, historic buildings and technology, and an exploration of Ravensbrück’s history. For current visitor arrangements at the memorial, check its visitor information.

Discover more destinations: Himmelpfort, Mühlenbecker Land, Hohen Neuendorf, Stechlin, Leegebruch, Oberkrämer, Sonnenberg, Oranienburg.

Go to the regional travel overview: Oberhavel.