Willingshausen combines the history of an artists’ colony with short circular walking routes through the artists’ village and its surroundings. The artists’ colony was founded in 1824. Today, it offers a range of perspectives: collections and exhibitions, an art fellowship, and the KuKuKs Trails. If you would like to combine culture with a walk, you can choose between a route through the village and the purple trail, which leads down into the Antreff Valley.

Artists’ Colony: Art, Traditional Costume, and Crafts

The Malerstübchen Museum in Willingshausen presents the art history of the 19th and 20th centuries and displays paintings featuring Schwalm traditional costume. The Malerstübchen Willingshausen Association also owns a collection of prints and paintings from every period of the artists’ colony. The two focuses complement each other: the museum highlights specific centuries, while the collection spans the colony’s entire history.

The Malerstübchen also displays traditional Schwalm rural crafts, including whitework embroidery and knitting and spinning. Expert-led tours include talks on the artists’ colony and its artists, Schwalm customs, and crafts and whitework embroidery. This extends the view beyond paintings to the Schwalm region’s craft traditions.

Art Venues and Fellowship

Art exhibitions are held several times a year in the art gallery next to the Gerhardt-von-Reutern House. The World Culture House, the Gerhardt-von-Reutern House, regularly hosts art and cultural events, as well as courses and workshops. An International Artists’ Symposium has been held in Willingshausen every July since 2019. If you would like to plan your trip around a particular exhibition or event, check the current date in advance.

The Willingshausen Art Fellowship adds a program for emerging artists to the colony’s art history. Since 1996, two students or recent graduates of art colleges and academies have come to the artists’ colony each year. Each stay lasts three months, either from February to April or from September to November. During their stay, they live in the heritage-listed Shepherd’s House and work in the studio spaces of the Gerhardt-von-Reutern House. The fellowship concludes with an exhibition at the Willingshausen Art Gallery and a catalogue. It thus links the colony’s history with support for young artists.

On Foot: Through the Village or to the Antreff Valley

The KuKuKs Trails—the Willingshausen art and cultural routes—are easy, relatively short circular walks through the artists’ village and nearby area. The purple KuKuKs Trail runs through Willingshausen and into the Antreff Valley. The KuKuKs Trail IN THE VILLAGE also runs through the artists’ village. This gives you a specific distinction when choosing between the two descriptions: the purple trail explicitly extends into the Antreff Valley, while IN THE VILLAGE describes a route through the village.

The trails offer a different perspective on Willingshausen from its collections and art events. They can therefore complement the cultural focus when planning your trip: choose a circular route whose described course matches your interest in the village or the Antreff Valley.

In the Wider Destination of Schwalm-Eder District

Schwalm-Eder District broadens the view beyond Willingshausen. Its landscape includes upland ranges around the Knüll, Kellerwald, and Habichtswald. Other cultural highlights include, for example, the Schwalm Museum in Schwalmstadt-Ziegenhain: in a reconstructed pottery workshop, it displays the ceramics and pottery commonly used in the region. The museum also houses a large model of Ziegenhain Water Fortress as it stood in 1761, after it had been shelled during the Seven Years’ War.

Another distinct option in Schwalm-Eder District is the Schwalm Cycle Route. It is around 100 kilometers long and runs to the point where the Schwalm flows into the Eder, just before Felsberg. The route follows mostly paved or surfaced paths through river landscapes of meadows, fields, villages, and half-timbered towns. Felsberg-Gensungen and Schwalmstadt-Treysa are listed as rail access points for the cycle route; check current timetables when planning a specific journey.

Discover more destinations: Merzhausen, Felsberg, Schwalmstadt, Edermünde, Gudensberg, Gilserberg, Niedenstein, Melsungen.

Back to the wider travel overview: Schwalm-Eder District.