Laubach combines a historic half-timbered old town with castle and museum history, as well as trails through parkland and forest. This gives visitors a choice of different focuses for their trip: architectural history and collections, walks with a specified duration, or trails where distance is the main consideration.
Half-timbered houses, church and castle history
Laubach’s historic half-timbered old town is characterized by basalt-paved streets, half-timbered houses up to 500 years old, and the 600-year-old castle of the Counts of Solms-Laubach. The Protestant town church was first mentioned in 1057. Its structure includes a late Romanesque–early Gothic tower, choir and transept, as well as a Baroque nave dating from 1700 to 1702.
The history of the Museum Fridericianum is also linked to a change of location: Count Christian August had the building constructed around 1750 in Gonterskirchen as a hunting lodge; in 1832, it was moved to its present location in Laubach. The museum presents Laubach’s history up to the 20th century, including that of the count’s family, the townspeople and the rural population.
The Laubach Castle Museum displays painted late Gothic rooms from the 15th century, as well as objects and stories from five centuries. The Dollhouse Museum offers a different collection focus: its two floors display around 80 dollhouses from the Art Nouveau, Gründerzeit and Biedermeier periods. The history of the count’s family’s collections also includes the Laubach Castle Library, a private collection built up over more than 450 years, with around 120,000 works and the status of a reference library.
Walks and trails through parkland and forest
Laubach Castle Park was laid out at the end of the 19th century in the style of an English landscape garden. Its features include imposing, sometimes rare coniferous and deciduous trees. The “Poetry Along the Way – Paths to Poetry” walking trail runs through the park and over Ramsberg and features 23 poems. It takes about 1.5 hours and is considered easy, but includes an ascent to Ramsberg.
If you prefer to plan by distance, the panoramic trail around Laubach’s town center covers 9 kilometers and can be extended to 11.5 kilometers. The Poetry Trail, by contrast, gives an estimated duration. These different ways of planning help you choose between a walk with a stated duration and a route with two possible distances.
The Horloff Valley Loop passes through the dense Laubach forest and follows the river. Halfway along, you can cross the river at a ford or via the Sebastian Kneipp footbridge. This trail therefore combines forest and river scenery with two described options for crossing the river.
Cycling routes also offer different ways to plan: the 41-kilometer SolmserLand Cycling Tour connects the residential towns of Lich, Laubach and Hungen. On the described cycling route from Hungen to Laubach, the trail follows an old railway embankment through forest and meadows; in Laubach, switching to walking is recommended for exploring the castle park.
More things to do and getting here
Laubach’s indoor swimming pool has a 25-meter swimming pool with five lanes and starting blocks, three underwater massage jets, a cascading shower in the non-swimmers’ area, a small children’s slide and loungers. The outdoor pool has an L-shaped 50-meter pool with a diving area, one- and three-meter diving boards, a waterfall shower, a small water slide in the non-swimmers’ area, and a separate paddling pool with a climbing rock. As the outdoor pool operates seasonally, check its opening dates and the availability of individual facilities before you travel.
Road routes to Laubach lead from the A5 via the Homberg/Ohm and Fernwald exits, and from the A45 via Münzenberg and Wölfersheim. Check road conditions for your travel date.
Discover more destinations: Gonterskirchen, Biebertal, GieĂźen, Staufenberg, Linden, Lich, Rabenau, Pohlheim.
Back to the main travel overview: GieĂźen.
