Kudos to the town of Dötlingen — for being a regional winner of the “Our Village is Beautiful” (1999), and for its place in the Our Village Has A Future competitions.
In between its “beauty pageant” winner status, and its future, lies thousands of years of history; and a natural landscape that could keep you busy the rest of your natural born life.
The biggest attraction to Dötlingen is its string of some 30 megalithic tombs, which go back to the Neolithic period. That’s from like 4,000 to 1,800 B.C. Damn, that’s old, isn’t it?
If you want to see what archaeologists found in those tombs, go to the Museum of Nature in nearby Oldenburg. This is where you’ll hear the story of the “bog girl,” found in 1784.
Don’t run off yet, you still got to see the Church of St. Firmin, a blended church of Romanesque and Gothic design from around 1270. That’s not really old here, is it?
Hmm, the Thousand Year Old Oak isn’t either — but still standing proud after being split by lightning.
Dötlingen sits within the Wildeshauser Geest (oh, come to think of it — I haven’t been here in a while, so good to be back). And it’s easy enough to understand why so many artists want to live within Dötlingen’s Artist Colony.
It’s easy to be inspired by the hiking trails along the Giersberg; and along the fish ponds, I guess.
What else is there to see in Dötlingen? Plenty more, believe it, or not. Over in the village of Ostrittrum is both a zoo and leisure park. And throughout all of Dötlingen’s villages are lots of half-timbered houses. Even the largest one in all of northwest Germany; which would be the Tabkenhof, by the way, at some 58 meters long.
There’s a mighty big rock to be found here, too. Over in Neerstedt you’ll see this massive Scandinavian granite block — and only 1.2 meters of this gigantic stone is even visible.
Huge rocks, prehistoric tombs, half-timbered houses, and hiking trails that inspire folks to create — no wonder Dötlingen’s a “Beautiful Village.” And while it certainly has a future, it celebrates its past. Yup, kudos to you, Dötlingen.
