Discover Nesthausen

Nesthausen combines village history and landscape conservation with a range of ways to enjoy the outdoors. At Lake Nesthausen, reasons to get moving include an illuminated running loop and a variant of the Paderborn Lakes Tour; watersports add another dimension. Local history is reflected in an early form of the village’s name, the Heimatverein’s festival grounds and a project featuring historical information boards. You can tailor your stay to different interests rather than treating every experience as the same kind of excursion.

Landscape between two roads

The protected landscape feature LB 2.4.21 “Row of oak trees and strip of woodland in Nesthausen” is located in Nesthausen between federal highway 64 to the south and Nesthauser Straße to the north. Its location between these two roads gives the protected landscape a specific local context. It is a different facet of Nesthausen from the leisure activities at the lake.

In the wider local area, the Lippeniederung near Sande nature reserve protects the communities of still waters in the former extraction ponds “Nesthauser Grundsee” and “Heddinghauser See,” which are used as nature reserves. Alongside the row of oak trees and strip of woodland, this provides a distinct nature conservation context featuring two named bodies of water.

Local history and community events

Nesthausen was first mentioned in 1296 under the name “Nosthusen.” Nesthauser Straße leads from Elsen to the district; the historical name of the village is thus also reflected in today’s street name. In 1989, the City of Paderborn made the Nesthausen Heimatverein’s festival grounds at Lake Nesthausen available to the association. They are considered the centre, or village square, of Nesthausen. The history of the name and the village square tell different stories about the place: its early written mention and its community focal point.

The historical information boards in Elsen also feature Nesthausen. The local project includes a stop titled “The farming community of Nesthausen” and offers a route for visiting the boards on foot or by bicycle. The Nesthausen Heimatfest also includes a bird-shooting contest. Visitors can therefore explore both a historical theme and a local festival event.

Running, cycling and watersports at the lake

At Lake Nesthausen, there is a fully illuminated 3,500-metre running loop. The designated starting points are the waterski facility and the east side of the lake. The lighting is specified as being on from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.—a specific time range to bear in mind when planning your day.

A variant of the Paderborn Lakes Tour also runs along Lake Nesthausen by bicycle; the lake is known as a “waterski lake.” The two route options differ in their format and use: a running loop with designated starting points on the one hand, and a cycling variant of a lakes tour on the other. This makes it easy to fit lakeside exercise into your stay according to the activity you prefer.

Two waterski cableways at Lake Nesthausen invite you to enjoy sporty laps. At Wasserski Paderborn, free beach volleyball courts are available; their use is included in the admission price and depends on opening hours. Stand-up paddleboarding is also part of the range of leisure activities around Wasserski Paderborn. The rental station is open during the waterski cableway’s operating hours. Beach volleyball, waterskiing and stand-up paddleboarding each offer a different focus, while sharing the lake as their setting.

Paderborn as a distinct cultural context

In the wider destination of Paderborn, more than 200 Pader springs rise in the city centre. The Pader springs area below the cathedral and Abdinghof is protected as a garden monument. This landscape of springs belongs to the urban context of Paderborn and should not be equated with Nesthausen’s local landscape and lakeside experiences.

The Museum in the Imperial Palace presents the history of Paderborn and Westphalia from the 6th to the 12th century. One of its main focuses is Charlemagne’s palace, which Charlemagne had built in 777 above the Pader springs as the first and only palace he built in Saxony. Paderborn thus offers a distinct historical perspective alongside Nesthausen’s first recorded mention in 1296.

The Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum offers another cultural option: its permanent exhibition covers 5,000 years of the past, present and future of information technology—from cuneiform writing and calculating and typewriting machines to the internet and robotics. Visitors can use telephones from earlier times, try historical and modern computer games, and talk to Max, a virtual being. In the wider destination of Paderborn, local history and the history of technology are thus presented as distinct themes.

If culture is also of interest, these distinct themes in the wider destination of Paderborn add to the range of options.

For the wider travel overview: Paderborn.