Wedendorfersee: Lakeside Paths and Building History

Wedendorfersee combines a lake with a natural reed-lined shore, paths through a protected landscape area, and historic buildings. When planning your trip, you can focus on different things: a circuit along the water, trails through the landscape, or the local building history.

Lakeshore and Landscape

Wedendorfer See covers around 24 hectares. Its natural shoreline is bordered by an almost continuous belt of reeds. The lake is part of the “Köchelsdorfer Mühle including Wedendorfer See” Landscape Protection Area. The expanse of water, reeds, and protected-area status together shape the landscape.

The Tiene rises on the western shore as the lake’s outflow. North of the state road, it meanders gently through a narrow erosion valley with a pronounced steep slope. Galleries of alder and ash trees line the stream as far as the dammed millpond of the former Köchelstorfer Mill. The landscape description therefore encompasses not only the open lakeshore but also this valley course and its wooded slopes.

Hiking and Cycling

A hiking trail financed with LEADER funding allows you to walk around Wedendorfer See. The protected landscape area is also well served by hiking and walking paths. If you are planning a hike, you can choose between the specifically mentioned circuit around the lake and the paths in the protected area. Check local conditions before setting out.

Along the hiking trail to Wedendorfer Castle, the deciduous woodland belt contains old trees, particularly beeches and oaks. These tree species provide a different accent from the almost continuous belt of reeds along the lakeshore.

A cycling tour follows quiet, secluded paths through historic farmland and the present-day Köchelsdorfer Mühle Landscape Protection Area, reaching the shores of Wedendorfer See. Unlike the hiking trail around the lake, which is explicitly described, this tour focuses on the route through farmland and the protected area to the water. The activities therefore differ mainly in how their routes are described: walking around the lake or approaching it on a cycling tour.

Castle and Village Church

Wedendorf Castle was built as a Baroque palace in 1697 and remodeled in the Neoclassical style in the early 19th century. The building thus reflects two distinct phases: its Baroque construction and its later Neoclassical transformation.

The organ in the village church of Kirch Grambow was built in 1864 by Friedrich Friese (Friese III). A crypt beneath the church contains the coffins of the patronage families von Bülow and von Plessen. The organ and crypt represent different aspects of the church’s history: the dated work of a named organ builder and the patronage families associated with the church.

The Landscape of Northwest Mecklenburg

In the north, Northwest Mecklenburg includes the landscape region known as the “Northwest Mecklenburg Hills with Wismar Bay”; in the south, it includes the “West Mecklenburg Lake District with Lake Schwerin.” The district’s landscape also features terminal moraines, gently undulating ground-moraine plateaus, steep and flat coastal stretches, meltwater and drainage channels, and outwash plains.

Discover more destinations: Hundorf, Klein Labenz, Hohen Schönberg, Groß Strömkendorf, Poel Island, Demern, Rehna District, Kirchdorf

For the overview of the wider region: Northwest Mecklenburg.