Friesenheim: Roman History, Town Hall and Circular Walk

Friesenheim combines specific local history with a circular route and a GPS-guided exploration of the municipality. This offers different starting points for planning your trip: you can explore historical landmarks, consider a tour with nature and relaxation experiences, or use GPS to discover a range of social, natural-history and historical sites. Which themes take priority depends on what you would like to combine during your holiday. For a family trip, it can also help to start by sorting out shared interests: history, outdoor activity or GPS-based discoveries each offer a different focus.

Roman History and Town Hall

The Roman settlement of Friesenheim, in the Bannstude area, has been transformed into an open-air museum. Its Roman heritage provides a clear historical anchor for the town’s history. The historic town hall, which dates from the 16th century, is another landmark. The settlement and the town hall thus represent two distinct historical periods. Anyone interested in history can include both Friesenheim’s Roman past and a 16th-century building in their travel plans.

Circular Tour or GPS Discovery

The Himmelsliegen Tour is a circular walk of around 15 kilometres, with nature and relaxation experiences as well as views from various stops. It can be completed on foot or by bicycle. Its circular route and approximate length provide a concrete framework for planning, while the two suggested ways of getting around offer different ways to tackle it. Before setting off, check local signs for the latest conditions.

The Friesenheim Cultural Treasure Hunt uses GPS devices to guide visitors to historical, natural-history and social sites in the municipality. Unlike the Himmelsliegen Tour, its focus is not on a circular route but on discovering different types of places. This gives you two different options: a loop of around 15 kilometres or a GPS-guided search that takes in several aspects of the municipality. If you plan to take part in the Cultural Treasure Hunt, check whether the flyer is currently available.

The Wider Setting: Ortenau District

The wider Ortenau district lies between the Rhine and the Black Forest. It contains 23 nature reserves with a total area of around 3,110 hectares. They stretch from the Rhine Plain to the higher elevations of the Black Forest. This broadens the scope of your travel plans to include the district’s varied landscapes: the protected areas range from the plain to the highlands, while Friesenheim’s local attractions provide a focus of their own.

The Ortenau district’s cultural and leisure attractions also offer a range of experiences. Europa-Park and Rulantica are located in Rust. Rulantica offers year-round water-based fun for the whole family, numerous indoor and outdoor water attractions, and the Hyggedal relaxation and sauna area. The MiMa in Oberwolfach showcases unique minerals from the Black Forest collected by the Friends of Minerals and Mining Oberwolfach association. A tour of the historic farmhouses at the Vogtsbauernhof Open-Air Museum offers another way to explore cultural history: it shows how people lived and worked in the Black Forest up to 600 years ago. The region’s attractions therefore span water-based activities, minerals and the history of rural life.

Choose the Right Focus for Your Trip

If you are looking for a holiday apartment in Friesenheim, it helps to first consider what kind of itinerary you have in mind: would you like to focus mainly on Friesenheim’s history, the circular walk and the Cultural Treasure Hunt, or also include attractions elsewhere in the Ortenau district? This question gives your search a direction without reducing all the experiences to a single theme. For a family trip, you can also discuss together which interests matter most—local history, GPS discoveries, outdoor activity, or nature and water experiences across the wider district. This makes it easier to plan the mix of experiences you want for your trip.

Discover More Destinations

Discover more destinations: Ringsheim, Kippenheim, Meißenheim, Biberach, Schwanau, Hohberg, Zell am Harmersbach, Berghaupten.

Go to the main travel overview: Ortenau District.