The picturesque small town of Lübbenau is the perfect base for exploring Germany’s pretty Spree Forest Area. Still, while boat trips along the surrounding canals clearly are the most popular activity in the area, we found the town has enough sights of its own to warrant some time.
Apart from checking out the interesting historical museum and pretty castle park, it’s also a nice place to simply soak up the laid-back vibe of a German small town (and to try some regional food specialties!).
Read on for our recommendations of the best things to Do in Lübbenau, Germany.
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8 Awesome Things to Do in Lübbenau, Germany
Visit the Spreewald Museum
Local history museums in German small towns can be hit-or-miss by our experience, but the one in Lübbenau is definitely worth your time. It’s interactive and immersive, and you really get a feeling of what life was like over a century ago.
Our favourite part was the recreation of several craft workshops and small stores, including a very detailed version of a turn-of-the-century grocery store. If railway history is your thing, you’ll also find an original 19th century railway carriage (the seats look very uncomfortable).
Other exhibitions deal with local paintings and the burgeoning tourism in the Spree Forest, while the basement contains an eerie solitary prison cell (the place was used as a jail in the past). The museum is located in the old gatehouse at the western end of the city centre. You can check the current opening times here.
Check Out St. Nikolai Church
The pretty 17th-century church building towers over the town’s small marketplace and is a typical example of the region’s Baroque-era architectural style. It’s worth taking a quick peek inside to see the ornately carved gilded altarpiece and chancel.
Also worth checking out are the elaborately decorated marble sarcophagi of various local noblemen and -women. The church is open daily from 10am to 5pm.
Take a Stroll Through the Historic Centre
St. Nikolai church is far from the only historic building in the city centre, and it’s well worth taking a stroll through some of the small streets and alleyways surrounding the market square and the Großer Spreewaldhafen (the river port).
A lot of houses are built in a half-timbered style. The historic house in Ehm-Welk-Straße 24 dates to 1772, which makes it one of the oldest buildings in town. Other places that struck us were the old town hall building in the same street and the building containing the Café ‘Zeitlos’ on the market square.
Explore the Castle Park
Lübbenau’s classicistic castle serves as a hotel and event location nowadays, so unfortunately you can’t explore its interior. You can take a stroll through the pretty castle park, though, and at least have a look at the castle’s exterior as well as various outbuildings.
For us, the most interesting buildings were the former stables and the orangery. If you walk around to the southern facade of the latter, you can take a peek through the big glass windows to see the Mediterranean-style-frescoes inside.
Visit the Biosphere Reserve Exhibition
The Spree Forest has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1991 and the small, interactive exhibition at the ‘Haus für Mensch und Natur’ details both the rare animals and plants from the area and the cultural traditions and subsistence of the people living in Lübbenau and its surroundings.
There are some interesting displays on the historical development of the Spree Forest as a cultural landscape and a short film about the area, which we found well-worth the 5-minute watch. You can check the opening times here.
Try Some Regional Specialities
When traveling, we always like to try the regional specialties, and the Spree Forest has a surprising amount of these. Most famous among Germans are the pickled gherkins, which are basically served with every meal.
Other specialties to try include Matjes (pickled herring), potatoes with curd cheese and linseed oil and Vetschauer Grützwurst (Green Sausage from nearby Vetschau) with mashed potatoes. We tried all of these foods in the restaurants ‘Gasthof Strobel’ and ‘Gasthof Mühle’, both of which are located close to the River Port.
Take a Boat Trip Through the Surrounding Forest
This is the most popular activity in town, and rightfully so. In the area surrounding Lübbenau, the Spree River forms a vast inland delta, with hundreds of interconnected little canals weaving through the landscape. Tours of the pretty waterways range from 2-hour mini-trips to whole-day excursions.
We chose the 6-hour ‘Große Schleusentour’, which traversed a lot of canals in different landscapes and included two stops along the way. Boat trips start from the ‘Großer Spreewaldhafen’ port at the eastern end of the historic centre.
See Also: Choosing the Perfect Boat Tour in Germany’s Spree Forest
Visit Nearby Lehde Village
If Lübbenau isn’t cute enough for you yet, take the 20-minute stroll to nearby Lehde, a small village consisting of historic wooden houses built on a series of tiny islands and criss-crossed by countless canals.
Lehde really is gorgeous and was my favourite place on our trip to the Spree Forest. The main attraction in town is the open-air Freilandmuseum Lehde, which features a number of traditional farmsteads from the area that are a lot of fun to explore.
There’s also a museum dedicated to the famous pickled gherkins of the region, as well as various cafés and bars, where you can have a drink while watching the boats go by on the small canals. To get to Lehde from Lübbenau, just follow the road, which runs to the south of the castle area, east.
Map of Lübbenau
This map of Lübbenau contains all the sights and places mentioned in this post.
Hotels in Lübbenau
Lübbenau wears its pride for the local pickled Gherkins on its sleeve, and if you love unusual accommodation options, you can spend the night in a big wooden gherkin barrel, which is exactly what we did. We thought it was fun and surprisingly comfortable, although of course a bit cramped.
If you want something roomier and are not on a small budget, Spree Hotel am Hafen has very good reviews. Have a look below for more options.
How to Reach the Spreewald
The forest is located close to the city of Cottbus, about 100km south-east of Berlin. Lübbenau can be reached by direct train from Berlin’s main station several times an hour in about one hour. Coming from most other directions, you’ll have to change trains in Cottbus first.
Where to Go Next
Leipzig, Germany’s cultural Boomtown