Discover Lähden: Culture, Nature and Theatre

Lähden offers a range of reasons to visit: traces of cultural history, performances in Ahmsen, natural history and cycling. When planning your trip, it is worth distinguishing between seasonal performance dates and visits by appointment; the art route also sets its own framework at 63 kilometres.

Cultural History in Lähden and Its Districts

Lähden is home to a bell tower dating from 1700, considered the oldest of its kind. Remains of a stone grave recall earlier times. In Ahmsen, the former Marist monastery dates from 1922; it is now used as a youth monastery. St. Clement's Church in Holte is distinguished by its Baroque woodcarving, while St. Anthony's Church in Vinnen was built in 1853.

Herßum also brings together local history and landscape: a wayside cross from the 18th century is linked to the history of the village. The Teepohl, a renaturalised pond, is also located there. The different traces range from a historic building and ecclesiastical art to an archaeological feature and a landscaped body of water.

Waldbühne Ahmsen: Seasonal Programme

The Waldbühne Ahmsen is set in a forest on the edge of Ahmsen. Religious plays and fairy-tale performances have been staged there since 1949. Every year, a play and a family musical are on the programme from early May to mid-September. The auditorium is fully covered. If you are planning to attend a performance, check the specific dates for that year in advance and plan your visit around the seasonal performance schedule.

Lähden Natural History House

The Lähden Natural History House presents local wildlife and plant life through specimens, display panels and examples from woodland, fields, air and water. A cross-section of a river is shown as a diorama. The exhibition thus covers a variety of habitats and forms of presentation. Outside, the grounds include an herb garden, a tree trail and an insect hotel.

Visits and bookings are by appointment. If you are planning a visit to the natural history house, arrange your visit in advance. The art route also passes the natural history house as a cycling route; there, you can experience local wildlife and plant life both indoors and outdoors.

Cycling the Art Route

The 63-kilometre art route is considered a very easy bike ride. Lähden and Ahmsen are stages along the route. The distance gives the overall scope of the tour, while the two place names identify its stages. There is also a specific natural history stop along the route: the natural history house is included as a stop, connecting the bike ride with the themes of the exhibition.

The Emsland Region in a Broader Context

Within the wider travel destination of Emsland, Hümmling Nature Park covers around 580 square kilometres in the north-east of the district of Emsland. Cycling and hiking trails with information points pass historic sites, megalithic tombs and the Baroque palace of Clemenswerth. The Kranichpfad offers a specific walking route: around 2.5 kilometres lead into Theikenmeer Nature Reserve; the return follows the same path, making a total of around five kilometres. The Kranichpfad is therefore an out-and-back route, not a circular trail.

Discover more destinations: Twist, Spelle, Holthausen, Renkenberge, Meppen, Surwold, Esterwegen, Heede.

Back to the overview of the wider destination: Emsland.