Hillesheim: Culture, Crime Fiction and Geological History

When looking for a hotel in Hillesheim, its cultural profile can be a useful factor in choosing where to stay. The themes range from church music and crime fiction to geological traces and documents about Hillesheim’s past. The wider Vulkaneifel region also offers its own perspective on volcanic landscapes and tours.

Culture, Literature and History

St. Martin’s Church houses a Baroque organ dating from 1772, built by the Stumm family of organ makers. The instrument is played at concerts in Hillesheim. For culture enthusiasts, this brings together historic organ building and the chance to hear the instrument in concert.

The Crime House brings together an archive of crime fiction with more than 30,000 volumes and over 70 crime-themed board games. It also includes a bookshop and the Café Sherlock. Its focus therefore ranges from a literary collection to board games, clearly setting it apart from the organ’s musical theme.

At Burgstraße 27, visitors can explore geological evidence of the area’s history of fire and water, as well as documents about Hillesheim’s past. The two perspectives are distinct: the geological evidence relates to the area, while the documents relate to Hillesheim’s history. This makes it possible to distinguish an interest in natural history from one in historical records.

Volcanic Landscapes of the Vulkaneifel

So far, 77 maars have been identified in the Vulkaneifel; 350 eruption centres have also been counted, around 270 of them from the more recent phase. These figures refer to different things: identified maars and counted eruption centres. The Ulmen Maar marks the most recent volcanic eruption in the Vulkaneifel, which took place around 10,900 years ago.

Individual bodies of water each have their own distinct features. The Gemünden Maar has a water surface of around seven hectares and is the smallest of the three famous “eyes of the Eifel.” The Windsborn crater lake near Bettenfeld is the only natural crater lake north of the Alps. At the Strohn Lava Bomb, visitors can explore on site how the huge lava bomb formed and experience the effects of volcanism in the Eifel; local access conditions may vary.

Museums and Geological Evidence

The regional museums each focus on different subjects. The Eifel Volcano Museum in Daun displays three-dimensional landscape models of cinder cones, maars and mineral springs, as well as exhibits on volcanism in the Western Eifel. The Strohn Volcano House is an interactive museum; its exhibits include a lava fissure wall around 30,000 years old, about six metres long and four metres high. The Natural History Museum in Gerolstein is described as the Eifel’s largest and oldest geomuseum and displays stone evidence of the region’s geological history across three floors.

Hiking and Mountain Biking

The Vulkaneifel trails lead to scenic highlights on both sides of the Eifelsteig. They are marked and signposted, and include half-day hikes, day hikes and multi-day hikes. Two specific routes illustrate different formats: the Vulcano Trail is a 26.2-kilometre circular route east of Schalkenmehren. The eleventh stage of the Eifelsteig runs from Daun to Manderscheid and is 23.4 kilometres long.

For mountain biking, the Trailpark Vulkaneifel lists a network of routes around 750 kilometres long, with more than 17,500 metres of elevation gain. Alongside the different time formats of the hiking trails, this provides specific route lengths and a separate measure for a mountain biking network. Route conditions can change, so check the latest information before setting out.

Discover more destinations: Bolsdorf, Oberehe-Stroheich, Kerpen, Üxheim, Wiesbaum, Oberbettingen, Basberg, Walsdorf, Dohm-Lammersdorf, Loogh, Zilsdorf, Berndorf.

To the regional travel overview: Vulkaneifel.