Rundling villages – where the Wend people once lived
Wendland is well-known for its many Rundling villages in which the houses are constructed in a circular arrangement. Each village has its own delightful charm. The origins of the shape of these villages are still a mystery today. But we do know that the Wends — a Slavic people — lived in the Rundling villages starting in the 12th century.
Lübeln is probably the most famous Rundling village. The Rundling Trail begins here, winding through an agricultural landscape. In the Rundling Village Museum Wendland in Lübeln you will find out how people did their everyday work on the farm about 200 years ago.
Past the Lübeln church, the trail continues to the next Rundling village, Gühlitz, where you can see typical three-post and four-post farmhouses from the 18th century. The trail passes through Meuchefitz and Seerau in Drawehn through the typical Rundling landscape of the Hanover Wendland region and on to Jabel. Here the entire town is a protected historical monument. The Rundling Trail meets the Wendland Cross Trail here, a long-distance trail from Clenze to the Elbe river and on to Schnackenburg.
Satemin is the largest Rundling village in Wendland. Many of the gable inscriptions on the houses recall the great fire of 1850.
As the trail continues toward Lüchow, the bailiff’s tower can be seen from quite far away. This remnant of the castle that formerly belonging to counts is a reminder of the Lüchow “district offices”. Today it is the city museum called Amtsturm-Museum Lüchow. After a tour of the office gardens, the trail leads back into the city center. The half-timbered houses here appear to have one architectural signature. Under the management of the district’s master builder Lietzmann, the entire city was rebuilt in just two years following the fire of 1811.