Willingshausen – Painters’ Village and Artists’ Colony

Willingshausen combines the name of a painters’ village with a long artistic tradition. The artists’ colony was founded in 1824; art collections, exhibitions, a scholarship and circular walking trails offer different ways to explore the place. When planning your trip, you can decide whether to focus your stay more on walks, art and history, or on a combination of these.

Along the KuKuKs Trails Through Willingshausen

The KuKuKs trails – the Willingshausen art and culture routes – are easy, relatively short circular walks through the painters’ village and nearby surroundings. The purple KuKuKs trail leads through Willingshausen to the Antreff Valley. The KuKuKs trail IN THE VILLAGE runs through the painters’ village. This gives you the choice between a route whose described course leads from the village into the valley and one that explicitly goes through the village. The trails offer an active counterpoint to exhibitions and cultural events, without making your stay revolve around just one activity.

Artists’ Colony, Collection and Events

The Malerstübchen Willingshausen e. V. association owns a collection of prints and paintings from every period of the artists’ colony. Art exhibitions are held several times a year in the art gallery next to the Gerhardt-von-Reutern House. Since 2019, an International Painters’ Symposium has been held in Willingshausen every July. The World Culture House, the Gerhardt-von-Reutern House, regularly hosts art and cultural events, as well as courses and workshops. The dates and formats bring a variety of highlights to the town’s cultural life. If a particular exhibition or event is important to your trip, check the specific date in advance.

The Willingshausen art scholarship is also part of the history of the artists’ colony: since 1996, two students or recent graduates of art colleges and academies have come here each year. Each stay lasts three months and takes place either from February to April or from September to November. During this time, the emerging artists live in the listed Hirtenhaus and work in the studio spaces of the Gerhardt-von-Reutern House. The scholarship concludes with an exhibition at the Willingshausen Art Gallery and a catalogue. The working residency, studio and final presentation give the scholarship a clear structure and connect different aspects of the artists’ colony.

For a trip shaped by different interests, this variety can help you decide what to focus on: walking trails offer a different way to experience Willingshausen from exploring its art history or attending an event.

Other Perspectives in the Schwalm-Eder District

The wider travel destination of the Schwalm-Eder district includes the upland landscapes around the Knüll, Kellerwald and Habichtswald ranges. For a hike, the Steinkammergrabrunde near Fritzlar-Lohne is one specific option: this easy circular route is 4.90 kilometres long and is designated Nature Park Circular Route L1. The Schwalm Cycle Route covers a different scale. It is around 100 kilometres long and runs to the Schwalm’s confluence with the Eder, just before Felsberg in the Schwalm-Eder district. Mostly paved or surfaced, it passes through river landscapes of meadows, fields, villages and half-timbered towns. The rail connections at Felsberg-Gensungen and Schwalmstadt-Treysa are listed as ways to reach the cycle route.

The museums of the Schwalm-Eder district also offer their own cultural highlights. At the Museum der Schwalm in Schwalmstadt-Ziegenhain, a reconstructed pottery workshop displays the ceramics and pottery traditionally used in the region. The museum also has a large model of Ziegenhain Water Fortress, showing its condition in 1761 after it was shelled during the Seven Years’ War. These examples broaden the view of the Willingshausen artists’ colony to include other themes in the art and regional history of the wider travel destination.

Discover More Destinations

Discover more destinations: Merzhausen, Fritzlar, Niedenstein, Morschen, Ottrau, Borken, Gilserberg, Oberaula.

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