The best family-friendly hikes and walks around Ketziner Havel

As part of the village's redesign, the master builder David Gilly (1748-1808) constructed the Flour Scales and Fire Station complex between 1798 and 1805. The connection between the two buildings was created by a covered ladder barn, which served as a storage area for fire hoses and ladders. The fire engine was kept in the fire station itself and was occasionally used as a detention cell. The ladder barn was demolished around 1900, and the Flour Scales and Fire Station fell into disrepair. After reunification, at the initiative of the Paretz Historical Society, both buildings were completely renovated in accordance with historical preservation regulations, and the ladder barn was faithfully reconstructed. Source: https://www.paretz-verein.de/seite/131481/mehlwaage-und-spritzenhaus.html

Ice cellars for storing natural ice were, before the invention of refrigeration, the privilege of kings and wealthy landowners. Later, ice cellars were also built for communal use. This is likely the case with the ice cellar located behind the Paretz barn in the Rohrhaus garden. It is one of three ice cellars that once existed in Paretz. While the two located in the royal gardens no longer exist, the ice cellar built around 1850 was restored by the Historical Paretz Association in 2007 and opened as a small museum in 2010. Further information can be found at: https://www.paretz-verein.de/seite/131483/historischer-eiskeller.html

The lovingly restored and fully listed four-sided farmhouse served as the "Gasthof zum Prinzen Heinrich" (Prince Heinrich Inn) from 1912 onwards, with the rise of "Luisen Tourism," and from 1918 to 1942 as the "Gasthof zur Linde." At the end of the Second World War, the farmhouse was used as a military hospital, then for several years as a registry office. During the GDR era, there was a small private farm here. After the upheavals of 1989, the farm became increasingly quiet. In 2002, a family from southern Germany brought life back to the old walls of the farmstead. One of the family's four children is also named Luise, like the queen in the castle at that time. A small number of horses and other farm animals moved in with them on the four-sided farmyard. The storks also returned to the barn roof as they did every year, which is why the family promptly named the entire farm "Storchenhof" (Stork Farm). Source: https://www.paretz.online/hochzeits Feier/der-storchenhof-paretz/

Anyone cycling over the gentle waves of the Havelland should briefly apply the brakes in Phöben – not because of the headwind, but because of this quiet beauty of brick and plaster: Phöben Church. Painted in soft pink, with a slender tower and neoclassical clarity, it stands slightly elevated above the village, as if watching out – for Fontane, for cyclists, for stories. You step through the gate, which looks a bit as if it had once waited for the stagecoach, and find yourself in a well-kept churchyard that is more park than cemetery. Spring: daffodils. Summer: shade under old trees. Autumn: a rustling sound. And always this view – of the Havel, of the sky, of your own peace. You park your bike next door. The tour continues – panoramic view included – but if you don't pause here, you've missed something: not the great attraction, but the small inkling that it's places like these that make cycling through the country so precious.

This is how refrigerators used to work

Nice place for a rest!

Beautiful area for walking and hiking, lots of water, lots of greenery.

great nature beautiful view