Zilsdorf: Volcanic Trails, Geology and Local History

Zilsdorf offers a range of reasons to visit: hiking trails to the Arensberg volcano, geological features, and architectural and local history. When planning your trip, you can focus on a particular hike, the volcanic landscape and its connections to water, or historic buildings. This lets you shape your visit around the topics that interest you most.

Hiking Trails and Getting Your Bearings

The Volcano Trail is a moderately difficult, 13.3-kilometre circular route from Hillesheim via Walsdorf and Zilsdorf to the Arensberg volcano. Its length and difficulty rating provide specific guidance for planning your hike. These details distinguish this circular route from the other attractions in the village.

The Volcano Panorama Hiking Trail starts and ends at the community hall in Zilsdorf and passes directly by the XXL bench. Your choice of route can depend on whether you are planning a moderately difficult circular hike with a specified distance or prefer a trail that starts and ends at the community hall.

The community hall is also the starting point, Point C, of the GEO Trail. Two information panels there cover the region’s mineral springs and the mineral and thermal waters of the Eifel. Those interested in geology will find a local point of reference for these topics here.

Volcanic Landscape, Protected Areas and Water

Arensberg is one of the largest geological attractions in the Gerolsteiner Land and the only significant volcanic cone from the Tertiary period. It is also a hotspot in the “Vulkaneifel” Special Protection Area for birds and the “Gerolsteiner Kalkeifel” Special Area of Conservation. Its geological significance and its protected-area status are two distinct aspects of this destination.

A wide forest path leads from Zilsdorf past a small car park at the edge of the Arensberg forest to the tunnel and into the volcano. Beuel also has geological significance for Zilsdorf: it lies about half a kilometre away, is the remnant of a volcanic stratovolcano, and has been dated to approximately 970,000 years old.

Zilsdorf also has a Kneipp wading pool. The spring-fed streams that supply the pool get their water from Beuel’s volcanic deposits. This connects the local geological feature and the Kneipp pool through the shared theme of water, although they are separate attractions.

Buildings and Historical Periods

The Catholic branch church of St. Anthony in Zilsdorf is a two-bay hall church dating from 1815. North of Zilsdorf stands the small shrine “Unter dem Heiligenhäuschen,” a small rendered building with a moulded round-arched portal dating from 1664. The two buildings represent different forms of religious architecture from different periods.

For centuries, the Arnulfus Chapel served as the parish church for Walsdorf and Zilsdorf. It was demolished in 1825 because it had fallen into disrepair. Its history adds the former parish function shared by both villages to the picture of the two other named buildings.

The dates place these histories in different periods: the small shrine dates from 1664, the branch church from 1815, and the Arnulfus Chapel was demolished in 1825. Together, they offer a historical perspective ranging from a small rendered building to the branch church and the story of a former parish church.

Discover more destinations: Wiesbaum, Basberg, Bolsdorf, Oberbettingen, Loogh, Walsdorf, Üxheim, Oberehe-Stroheich

View the main travel overview: Hillesheim.