Wetzlar – Discover the Old Town, Goethe and Optics
Accommodation in Wetzlar
Medieval squares, striking half-timbered houses and playful Baroque buildings along the banks of the Lahn shape Wetzlar’s Old Town. There are also routes with different focuses: a walk through the Old Town, a loop around its green belt and the Goethe Trail. This makes it easy to tailor your stay to your travel group’s interests, with local history, literature, optics and exercise among the possible themes.
The Old Town and its routes at your own pace
The official walk through Wetzlar’s Old Town is 1.3 kilometres long. If you would rather explore the city on a loop around the edge of the historic centre, the Green Belt Trail offers another option: it runs around the Old Town, is about 2 kilometres long and takes approximately 1.5 hours. These details give you concrete points of reference for including these activities in your daily itinerary.
The Wetzlar Goethe Trail offers a distinctive literary perspective. Visitors walk along paths that Johann Wolfgang Goethe often took. Quotation stones mark places that formed the basis for his descriptions in the novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther.” The trail is around 7.5 kilometres long, has 220 metres of elevation gain and takes about 2 to 3 hours. Compared with the shorter walk through the Old Town, it therefore requires planning for a considerably longer outing. If you are travelling with children, you can use the distances and timings as concrete guidelines when planning your day together.
Goethe, local history and optics
Wetzlar’s buildings also tell stories of different eras. The Kalsmunt Tower is the keep of the former Imperial Castle of Kalsmunt. The castle was built at the end of the 12th century to protect the flourishing Imperial City of Wetzlar. This means that the city’s history, which you can discover while exploring the Old Town, goes back to the era of medieval Imperial Cities.
At the Lotte House, Goethe’s novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” is the focus of three rooms. On display are the first edition and international editions of Werther from the 18th to the 20th century, as well as prints and paintings featuring literary themes from the novel. Other exhibits illustrate its impact: imitations, polemical writings, parodies and translations show how “Werther fever” took hold soon after the novel’s publication. Historical furniture, paintings, manuscripts and household items belonging to the Buff family offer further insight. For literature enthusiasts, the visit brings together the novel, its historical impact and objects from everyday family life.
Those interested in optics can discover two different approaches. The Viseum Wetzlar Museum is located in a restored town house dating from the 18th century. Objects and interactive exhibits introduce visitors to the world of optics and the optical precision industry. The Optics Trail runs through Wetzlar and invites visitors to experiment and explore at its stations. Its individual objects are located in the Old Town and city centre. At the Viseum, the focus is on learning through exhibits; on the trail, it is on the stations around the city.
Getting here and choosing a holiday apartment to suit your itinerary
If you are travelling by train, Wetzlar station is a useful landmark: it is served by numerous trains and is a 1,200-metre walk from Domplatz. The affordable city bus connects the station with the Old Town and links different parts of the city. When looking for a holiday apartment, first consider which experiences you want to shape your trip: the Old Town and local history, Goethe’s literature, optics or the longer routes.
Discover more places
If you would like to add more destinations to your travel plans: Greifenstein, Waldsolms, Hüttenberg, Braunfels, Solms, Siegbach, Haiger, Dietzhölztal.
For the overview of the wider region: Lahn-Dill district.
