Paderborn

Paderborn (Paddaboan in Low German) is a 150,580 inhabitants city located by river Pader (only 4 km long, shortest in Germany) in the northeastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, part of Westphalia region. It is home of Paderborn University, one of the fourteen public research universities in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

How do I arrive to Paderborn?

  Paderborn is quite well connected with other major cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, mainly in Westphalia and Ruhrgebeit ones. 

• Train: there are often trains to important destinations within NRW like Soest (aprox. 30 minutes), Detmold (aprox. 40 minutes), Bielefeld (aprox. 1 hour), Dortmund (aprox. 1 hour 10 minutes), Essen (aprox. 1 hour 30 minutes), Münster (aprox. 1 hour 25 minutes) or Düsseldorf (aprox. 2 hours). From Soest there are frequent trains to places like Paderborn (aprox. 40 minutes), Dortmund (aprox. 45 minutes) or Münster (aprox. 50 minutes).
• Bus: there are buses to many cities in NRW state.
• Car: if you rented a car from Paderborn it can be reached Bielefeld and Detmold (aprox. 40 minutes), Soest (aprox. 50 minutes), Dortmund (aprox. 1 hour 15 minutes), Münster (aprox. 1 hour 40 minutes), Düsseldorf (aprox. 2 hours) or Cologne (aprox. 2 hours 10 minutes). It can be reached from places in other German regions like Osnabrück (aprox. 1 hour 10 minutes) in Lower Saxony and Kassel (aprox. 1 hour) in Hesse.

History

Paderborn was founded as a bishopric by Charlemagne in 795, although its official history began in 777 when Charlemagne built a castle near the Pader springs. In 799 Pope Leo III fled his enemies in Rome and reached Paderborn, where he met Charlemagne, and stayed there for three months (reinstating Leo in Rome and was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 800). In 836, St. Liborius became the patron saint of Paderborn after his bones were moved there from Le Mans by Bishop Badurad. The bishop of Paderborn, Meinwerk, became a Prince-Bishopric of Paderborn in 1100, building large buildings and the area became a place for the emperors to stay. The city was taken by Prussia in 1802, then by the French vassal state Kingdom of Westphalia (1807-1813) and then returned to Prussia. In 1930, the See of Paderborn was promoted to archdiocese and, during WW2, Paderborn was bombed by Allied aircraft, resulting in 85% destruction. After the city was reconstructed in the 1940s and 1950s, Paderborn became a major industrial seat in Westphalia. 

What can I visit in Paderborn?

  Paderborn is an interesting city and most of the sightseeing points are located in Altstadt.

These are Paderborn's main attractions:

• Paderborn Catholic Cathedral (6:30-19 Mon-Sat, 6:30-19:30 Sun): 13th century Gothic Dom that was born as a Romanesque church and rebuilt to change its artistic style. Some of the most important points are Dreihasenfesnter (a window in the cloister with an unique trompe-l'œil with three hares), the major altarpiece and Dietrich von Fürstenberg's tombs, a 16th century prince-bishop of Paderborn. It also has one of the largest crypts in Germany with the tomb and relics of St. Liborius and home of the Archdiocese of Paderborn.
• Paderborn Diocesan Museum (10-18 Tue-Sun; 4€/ 2€/ 1.50€  adults/ reduced/ students and kids): Art-Nouveau building that hosts a large collection of sacred art belonging to the Diocese of Paderborn. Its most important pieces are the famous Liborius altarpiece (1627) or the lime wood image known as Imad Virgin (11th century).
• Paderborn Town Hall: nice building from 1616 with typical Weser Renaissance architecture.
• Jesuiten Catholic Church (10-12 Mon-Fri; free): basilica with a very beautiful Baroque style major altarpiece (copy of the original, destroyed during WW2) with a huge quantity of details in wooden and gold. 
• Abdinghof Lutheran Church (11-18): austere church with two Romanesque style towers and a nice inside.
• St. Bartholomäus Chapel: only remain of Charlemagne's palace where he met pope Leo III, burnt in a fire in the 11th century and replaced by Ottonian-Salian Kaiserpfalz, a reproduction of the original book. This chapel from 1017 is considered the oldest temple north of the Alps and has very good accustics.
• LWL-Kaiserpfalz Museum (10-18 Tue-Sun; 4.50€/ 2.50€  adults/ reduced): museum with an exhibition with around 500 finds of Charlemagne's years like remains of frescoes or drinking containers.
• Paderquellgebiet: relaxing park with the 300 Pader river's springs.
• German Tractor and Model Car Museum (10-18 Fri-Sun; 8€/ 6€  adults/ reduced): museum about agricultural technology from past decades with over 100 tractors from major German manufacturers such as Lanz, Hanomag, Deutz, MAN, Porsche, Eicher and Schlüter.
• Heinz Nixdorf Forum Museum (9-18 Tue-Fri, 10-18 Sat-Sun; 8€/ 5€  adults/ reduced): museum that explores more than 5,000 years of communication from cuneiform to cyberspace, founded by Nixdorf's founder, a company part of Diebold Inc. It has objects that used to be the most advanced technology in their time like a reproduction of ENIAC or a 1940 vacuum tube computers created for the US Army.
• Neuhaus Palace (14-18 Tue-Fri, 10-18 Sat-Sun; 2.50€/ 2€/ free  adults/ reduced/ people under 12): 17th century Schloss with Weser Renaissance style built for the prince-bishop of Paderborn during the reign of Erich von Braunschweig-Grubenhagen with a Baroque garden in 1736. In the surrounding area there's a very nice park and two museums: Paderborn History Museum (10-18 Tue-Sun; 2.50€/ 2€/ free  adults/ reduced/ people under 12) and Paderborn Nature History Museum.
  

Neuhaus Palace

Paderborn Catholic Cathedral

St. Patrokli Catholic Church

 In the way between Dortmund and Paderborn it can be found Soest (Saust in Low German), a 47,460 inhabitants town considered one of the most appealing towns in the northwestern part of Germany. It was quite important under the Hanseatic League and, although it was destroyed during WW2, it was wonderfully rebuilt. The town has some of the most interesting churches in whole Westphalia; St. Patrokli Catholic Church (10-17:45; free), 10th century Romanesque style Dom with delicated frescoes and a nice and majestic bell tower, epitome of Romanesque architecture in Westphalia (it holds relics of St. Patroclus of Troyes); St. Maria zur Wiesen Lutheran Church (11-16 Mon-Sat, 11:30-16 Sun), late-Gothic church with nice Neo-Gothic towers and colourful stained glass windows, a perfect example of hall church style known as Westfälisches Quadrat. Other important churchs in town are Nikolai Chapel (11-12 Tue-Thu and Sun from Apr to Nov), simple chapel whose colourful altar painting is thought to have been painted by Conrad von Soest; St. Maria zur Höhe Lutheran Church (10-17:30 from Apr to Sep; 10-16 from Oct to Mar; free), 13th century church with a dark but beautiful inside with wonderful frescoes, an altarpiece attributed to Master of Liesborn and Scheibenkreuz (13th century plate cross, unique in Germany ) and St. Petri Catholic Church (9:30-16:30 Tue-Sat, 14-17:30 Sun; free), mixed style church with 7th century Romanesque origin, a Gothic choir and a Baroque cupola with frescoes and a contrasting modern altar. Soest also has some interesting museum like Green Sandstone Museum (10-17 Mon-Sat, 14-17 Sun; free), museum that teaches about this stone typical from Soest and it's St. Maria zur Wiese's restoration workshop too; or Osthofen Gate Museum (14-16 Wed and Sat, 11-17 Sun; 2€/ 1€  adults/ reduced), small museum that shows the medieval defense and weapons history in Soest. It's also interesting walking by the park Grosser Teich, with a pond and an old water mill (currently used as tourist office).

Where can I eat in Paderborn?

 Some of the choices to eat in Paderborn are the ice cream shop Artusa (Westernstraße 2) or cafe Central (Rosenstraße 13). As for Soest the best ideas to try local are the traditional breweries Zwiebel (Ulricherstraße 24) and Christ (Walburgerstraße 36). The most popular local dishes in Soest are rye bread (mainly Pumpernickel) and Bullenauge (a kind of mocha liqueur).

Posted in: Europe,Germany,North Rhine-Westphalia