Ahlen: Industrial Heritage, Art and City History

Ahlen offers a range of cultural highlights for a stay: industrial heritage, art, city history and literary traces. Depending on your interests, you can focus your plans on individual places and activities.

Industrial history around the Westfalen Colliery

Ahlen’s water tower was built between 1915 and 1917. Originally, it supplied water to the Westfalen Colliery and the miners’ settlement. The site of the former Westfalen Colliery is now a day-trip destination with a playground, sports facilities, green spaces and a spoil tip. The water tower and colliery site thus highlight different aspects of industrial history: the colliery’s former water supply and the site’s present-day use as a place to visit.

There is also a quiz trail with a questionnaire on the former colliery site. The mole Koslowski guides primary school pupils and other interested visitors around the site. The colliery rally therefore offers another way to explore the area by following a series of questions.

Art and Ahlen’s city history

The Kunstmuseum Ahlen presents five changing exhibitions each year, featuring works of Classical Modernism and more recent contemporary art. If you are planning a visit, check the current opening hours and dates for the Sunday tours in advance. The Ahlen Local History Museum focuses on a different subject: exhibits include Stone Age finds from the Ahlen area, early settlement traces, medieval urban structures and the development of industrialisation in Ahlen. The museum opens only for special exhibitions, so plan your visit around the dates of the exhibitions in question.

Peters’scher Hof is another historic attraction: the four-bay house, dating from the 16th century, is located in Ahlen’s old town and bears witness to the Münsterland’s farming and burgher culture. Before visiting, check the special opening hours and confirm the specific access arrangements for your visit. St. Mary’s Church, near St. Bartholomew’s Church, was founded in the 13th century.

Literary traces and the city rally

Local poet Augustin Wibbelt wrote poems and stories in Low German and Standard German. His birthplace in the Vorhelm district of Ahlen is a tourist attraction. The Wibbeltschleife trail also celebrates the poet and his work: along the route are six stones inscribed with sayings from his works, as well as sculptures commemorating Wibbelt and his writing. The trail starts in Vorhelm.

The Ahlen city rally is primarily intended for children aged eight to eleven. It takes them through the historic city centre with a series of questions and is designed to last two hours. This distinguishes it from the colliery rally, which leads around the site of the former Westfalen Colliery. If you are planning an activity for children, you can choose between a walk through the city centre and a quiz trail around the colliery site.

A regional look at Warendorf

The wider destination of Warendorf offers further distinct attractions. At the annual stallion parades in Warendorf, more than 100 stallions are presented in 20 professionally narrated displays over three days in late September. If this event is relevant to your travel plans, check the specific dates. The Bentheim Tower is a reminder of Warendorf’s ring of fortifications, laid out around 1300; of its original five structures, it is the only one still standing. It can only be viewed from the outside.

In Telgte’s old town, the RELíGIO Museum explores religious life across 1,500 m² of exhibition space, from Bronze Age grave goods to the religious diversity of the present day. The Telgte Lenten Veil is also housed there: measuring 4.40 m by 7.40 m, it is one of the largest Lenten veils in Westphalia. The Feldmarksee lake in the Feldmark recreation area offers a different regional attraction. Its surface area is around 13 hectares, and it also has a bird sanctuary island.

Discover more destinations: Beckum, Telgte, Beelen, Oelde, Everswinkel, Sendenhorst, Drensteinfurt, Warendorf.

Back to the main travel overview: Warendorf.