Atlas Trail
Ten Cities from the Ruhr to Ostrava, West to East
This trail runs west to east across central Europe, from the Rhine and Ruhr cities of western Germany through Westphalia, Thuringia, Lusatia and Bohemia to the Czech border with Poland. Each stop is a city whose atlas page records its river or basin setting, so the path reads as a chain of valleys, borders and industrial regions.
Stop 1 of 10.
Cities
Duisburg sits at the confluence of the Ruhr and the Rhine, a position that made it a center of trade, industry and transportation. With about half a million inhabitants it is one of the largest cities of the Ruhr area, so the trail starts at its westernmost river junction.
Stop 2 of 10.
Cities
Bochum lies on the Ruhr Heights hill chain between the Ruhr to the south and the Emscher to the north. It is the fourth largest city of the Ruhr after Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg, and hosts Ruhr University Bochum.
Stop 3 of 10.
Cities
Münster is the historic capital of Westphalia, to the north of the Ruhr cities. In 1648 it and Osnabrück hosted the signing of the Treaties of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years' War, and today it is known as the bicycle capital of Germany.
Stop 4 of 10.
Cities
Nördlingen lies in Swabia, Bavaria, inside the Nördlinger Ries, an impact crater about fifteen million years old and 25 kilometres across. It was first mentioned in recorded history in 898, and it takes the trail south of the Westphalian and Thuringian cities.
Stop 5 of 10.
Cities
Erfurt is the capital and largest city of Thuringia, in the wide valley of the River Gera. It stands in the line of the six largest Thuringian cities from Eisenach to Gera, and is among the larger cities closest to the geographic centre of Germany.
Stop 6 of 10.
Cities
Cottbus is the second largest city in Brandenburg, founded when Sorbs built a castle on a sandy island in the River Spree and first documented in 1156. It is the center of the Lower Sorbian-speaking minority and the largest bilingual city in Germany.
Stop 7 of 10.
Cities
Görlitz is the largest town in Upper Lusatia and the easternmost town in Germany, on the Lusatian Neisse. Zgorzelec formed its eastern part until 1945, and the two together form the Euro-City of Görlitz/Zgorzelec of around 86,000 people.
Stop 8 of 10.
Cities
Liberec also stands on the Lusatian Neisse, in the Czech Republic, and is the capital of the Liberec Region. First documented in 1352 as Reichenberg, it grew into a major textile center known as the Manchester of Bohemia.
Stop 9 of 10.
Cities
Hradec Králové is the capital of its region in the Czech Republic and was a dowry town governed directly by Bohemian queens from 1306. A large fortress built between 1766 and 1789 shaped the city until its abolition in 1884, after which reconstruction earned it the nickname Salon of the Republic.
Stop 10 of 10.
Cities
Ostrava ends the trail near the Polish border, at the confluence of the Oder, Opava, Ostravice and Lučina. It is the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region and the third largest city in the Czech Republic by population and area.
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