Westphalia was the original home of the Saxon people and one of three great divisions of the Saxon kingdom, the others being Engern and Eastphalia. This is a flat land dominated broken only by a low range of hills separating the Ems basis from the Weser. Here you find large and ancient cities rising from the plains sprinkled with timeless villages and moated castles.
Select a Region to Explore in Detail
Sauerland
The Duchy of Mark was based in a truly uninhabited region. Aside from the city of Hagen and its Art Nouveau cityscape, the Sauerland is a region of dense forests and forgotten mines. The regional architecture is perhaps best characterized by its half-timbered homes and wood-shingle designs.
Weser-Engern
This region follows the shifting silhouette of the Weser River as it leaves the highlands of Hessen and Thüringen. The Weser was a culturally important river, linking the Hanseatic city of Bremen with the interior. Though the region is best known for its distinctive Weser-Renaissance style of architecture, its fractured political past yields a region full of unique surprises.
Westphalia
Westphalia is a region best known for its two great cities, Münster and Dortmund. The rest of the region is sprinkled with small towns and moated castles, divided evenly between the Ruhr and Ems rivers. The best things to see here are the ancient sandstone cities of Münster, Soest, and Lippstadt, which once stood astride the trade routes connecting the Hanseatic States to the Rhineland.
