As of: February 16, 2024 2:31 p.m
All houses point to a central square: In Wendland there is a very special type of settlement, the so-called Rundlingsdörfer. The origins of the “roundlings” probably go back to the Slavs.
They are called Güstritz or Köhlen, Jabel or Meuchefitz: small villages in the Wendland that consist of barely more than a dozen houses. What connects them is the arrangement of the individual buildings: the gable ends of the farmhouses, mostly typical northern German hall houses, all face a central square in the middle of the town, resulting in a round shape. It gave the villages the name Rundlinge. There are particularly many roundlings to the west of Lüchow. Around 100 such villages belong to today’s joint municipality.
Old farmhouses from the 18th century
The gable ends of all houses face the village square. Why this is so is historically unclear.
The historical settlement form arose in the Middle Ages and is almost unique in the world. The oldest Rundling villages have existed for several hundred years. Most of the Rundlinge’s surviving houses date from the 18th century. Since many places have barely grown, their characteristic shape has been retained. To ensure that it stays that way, many houses in the Rundlingen and sometimes entire villages such as Saasse or Jabel are listed as historical monuments.
How did the round settlement shape come about?
To this day it has not been completely clarified why the villages were once built in this form, or whether they developed from former fortified villages or cult places. The only thing that seems clear is that the Slavs laid out the first places in this form in the 12th century. Historians suspect that the regional landlords brought together settlers in the round villages who previously lived isolated.
Discover Rundlinge on foot or by bike
The round villages can be easily explored on a bike tour.
If you would like to get to know the extraordinary villages better, you can explore five of these places on foot on a 17 kilometer long circular path. You can cycle past other villages on a 25-kilometer circular tour. In Lübeln it is worth visiting the Rundlingsmuseum Wendlandhof (open April to October). The open-air museum provides information about the history of the Rundling villages and is dedicated to country life around 200 years ago with various experience points on the site and several historical buildings.
Map: Selected Rundling villages in Wendland
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02/17/2024 | 12:00 o’clock