Ihlow: Village Church and Flaeming-Skate

Ihlow offers several distinct reasons to visit: its medieval village church, access via the Flaeming-Skate, and other local and landscape attractions across the municipality. The churches differ in age, style, and materials; Mehlsdorf and Niendorf offer different highlights focused on nature and village festivals.

Village Churches in Ihlow and the Municipality

The village church in Ihlow was built around 1300 in the Gothic style as a rectangular hall church made of hewn fieldstones. Its church tower has two spires and is the only double-spired tower among the village churches in the Fläming. Its design, materials, and tower give the church a distinctive architectural profile.

Rietdorf, a locality in the municipality of Ihlow, has a late Romanesque village church made of granite blocks in its town center. This means that both the architectural period and the building material differ from those of Ihlow’s Gothic fieldstone church. In Bollensdorf, residents built a small half-timbered church in 1952 on the site of the manor house, which had burned down in 1945. Across the municipality, the range of buildings thus extends from Gothic fieldstone to late Romanesque granite masonry and a half-timbered structure dating from 1952.

The Flaeming-Skate and the Former Railway Line

Ihlow can be reached by inline skates or bicycle via the Flaeming-Skate. The former narrow-gauge railway line of the JLKB (Jüterbog-Luckenwalde Light Railway) ran through Ihlow; passenger services ended in 1963. Passenger services were discontinued in 1963; today, the former route can be used for inline skating. The former railway era and today’s use of the route for inline skating thus meet.

Teltow-Fläming district maintains and regularly cleans the Flaeming-Skate. Check the current route conditions before setting off.

Lowland Landscape, Village Festival, and Legends

At the municipal level, Mehlsdorf and Niendorf offer further attractions. Mehlsdorf is surrounded by the Mehlsdorfer Busch, an alder carr forest that has been preserved in an almost natural state. The lowland landscape in Mehlsdorf is suitable for cycling and hiking, and the corresponding routes are signposted. The forest and lowland landscape complement the signposted opportunities for outdoor activities.

At Niendorf’s summer village festival, the annual Brühtrog race takes place across the village pond. It attracts visitors and participating teams from the surrounding area. If you are traveling for the race, check the festival dates in advance. In a forest near Niendorf lies Pfennig-Pfuhl, which local legend associates with the story of a sunken castle.

Near Ihlow, about 2.5 kilometers to the southwest, lies Borchelt. The Slavic ring rampart, surrounded by a ditch, is situated in a marshy lowland. The site was once a Wendish place of sacrifice and later a robber-knight castle. This sequence gives the archaeological site its own historical context alongside the municipality’s churches and landscapes.

Discover more destinations: Jänickendorf, Nuthe-Urstromtal, Werben, Seehausen, Dahme/Mark, Kemnitz, Woltersdorf, Kloster Zinna

For the regional travel overview: Teltow-Fläming.