Geseke: City History, Pilgrimage Route and Limestone
Accommodation in Geseke
Geseke offers a variety of reasons to visit: the Hellweg Museum showcases geological and ethnographic collections, the quarry park brings limestone extraction to life, and the Way of St. James follows the Hellweg through the city. The city also has nature reserves and events held on fixed dates. When choosing your holiday apartment in Geseke, you can therefore consider whether culture, pilgrimage traditions, cycling, nature or an event date should shape your trip.
Museum and Sacred Art
The Hellweg Museum has geological, prehistoric and ethnographic collections. Its subject matter thus ranges from the history of the Earth and prehistory to ethnography. The museum is housed in the listed Dickmann House, a magnificent merchant’s house dating from 1664 and an upscale farming burgher hall house. During your visit, you can take an interest in both the collections and the building’s history.
St. Cyriacus Collegiate Church is located in the heart of Geseke. It contains a Pietà from the first half of the 15th century, as well as the image of “Maria Schuß,” which is venerated as a miraculous image. Visitors interested in religious art will find two distinct subjects here: a Pietà dated to a specific period and an image venerated as miraculous.
Discover Limestone and Nature
The “Mythos Stein” quarry park gives the public access to an area of around seven hectares within the quarry. Access is via a gently sloping ramp around 700 metres long, which is also suitable for visitors with disabilities. From a safe vantage point in the themed park, you can watch limestone being extracted, from blasting and loading to transporting the raw material to the neighbouring cement works. Alongside city history and sacred art, the park offers insight into the processing of a regional raw material.
The city also has natural areas worth visiting. The “Westerschledde” nature reserve is one of Geseke’s natural highlights. The “Stockheimer Bruch” nature reserve near Bönninghausen is another. If you would like to include nature in your trip, you can make these two reserves separate focal points alongside the museum, church and quarry park, without limiting your interests to a single type of attraction.
For cyclists, the 114-kilometre “Steine und Mehr” (“Stones and More”) route is another option. It was developed as a joint project by the municipalities of Geseke, Anröchte and Warstein. You can include the route as a separate part of a cycling trip; its stated length gives you a concrete distance to work with when planning.
Hellweg, Pilgrimage Route and Events
Pilgrims arrive in Geseke on the Way of St. James from the direction of Salzkotten. In Geseke, the route follows the Hellweg and crosses the old rampart, which still completely encircles the old town. Families can also join guided city tours for children as part of the “Discover Geseke for Children” series.
The Gösselkirmes is an annual four-day fair that begins on the first Thursday in May. The Hexenstadtfest takes place on the last weekend in September. If you would like to plan your trip around one of these events, their respective dates provide a useful starting point for scheduling.
You can also discover Eringerfeld as another destination.
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