Altena rises in layers above the Lenne: houses follow the river, the steep lanes climb toward a castle, and the history of wire-making reaches from old water-powered workshops into the present. It is a small town in the Märkischer Sauerland, east of the Ruhr area, with a strong industrial identity and an unusually vivid visitor story. IT.NRW counted 16,509 residents in the whole municipality on 30 June 2025; the figure covers Altena’s full municipal territory, not only its compact valley centre. The city’s own tourism portal calls it a “castle and wire town”, a phrase that captures both its skyline and the craft that shaped its work and landscape.
The castle’s chronology cautiously places the roots of its walls around 1100, but does not present a precise founding date as certain. It links the stronghold’s rise to the ironworking of the Märkischer Sauerland: early bloomery furnaces are documented in the region from around 800, while the castle’s role in protecting and benefiting from the metal trade is described as a plausible interpretation. The town grew below the Burgberg in the Lenne valley, where water power and narrow terrain influenced daily work. In later centuries, iron was drawn into wire, and Altena became a centre of wire production. Rather than treating that history as a vanished curiosity, the current regional visitor portal notes that wire is still made in the town. The wire-history guide explains how ore, water and forest charcoal made the trade possible.
One detail changes how visitors should read the castle: today’s dramatic silhouette is not an untouched medieval structure. After falling into disrepair and serving, among other uses, as a court, prison, hospital and poorhouse, it was rebuilt from 1907 to 1914. The reconstruction followed a heated public debate and deliberately gave the surviving fabric a romantic historicist appearance. The castle museum itself describes the way the work could present an idealised image of a medieval fortress. That later layer is part of Altena’s history too: the town chose to restore the hilltop landmark and turn it into a cultural destination. The castle chronology sets out the distinction between probable medieval roots, periods of decay and the twentieth-century rebuilding.
In 1914 the castle acquired a second international story. Altena schoolteacher Richard Schirrmann, working with Wilhelm Münker, opened what the museum identifies as the world’s first permanent youth hostel. The preserved hostel rooms remain part of the museum route: visitors can see the common room and original sleeping quarters, with rows of oak beds that make the early idea tangible. The hostel operated there until 1958 and was used occasionally as emergency accommodation through 1965. A DJH youth hostel still operates in the outer ward, so the place remains connected to the tradition it helped launch. The museum’s World Youth Hostel exhibition explains what is preserved and what belongs to the later visitor interpretation.
Allow time for both museums. The castle’s Museum of the County of Mark brings regional geology, archaeology, smithing, social history and the industrial era together; the German Wire Museum sits about 300 metres below the castle in a former school building, where the material is explored at a scale the castle could not accommodate. Its subject is not just how to draw wire, but how this adaptable material entered work, technology and daily life. The official museum page currently lists free admission to the castle museums and Wire Museum, while the Erlebnisaufzug has its own visitor arrangements. The lift carries visitors from the town into the upper castle courtyard through an interpretive tunnel cut into the hill; the town describes it as barrier-free for reaching the courtyard. Check current opening times, access conditions and lift prices on the museum and lift information page.
Altena’s industrial history also lives along the river. Walk the Lenne promenade and look for the metal “wire trees” that line it: these sculptures turn a local material into a landmark and recall the valley’s dependence on ore, flowing water and woodland fuel. A more intimate industrial stop lies in Evingsen, part of the municipality. The Drahtrolle am Hurk used water power to draw wire and sharpen awls; its stone building and waterwheel can be seen from outside, but the local association asks visitors to arrange an interior visit in advance. In the centre, a guided walk can connect the Lenne and Kirchstraße, the historic Burg Holtzbrinck, the carillon at Haus Köster-Emden and the Baroque Lutherkirche. The city’s walking tours include routes focused on the river, industrial history and the old town; the tour programme changes with the season.
Nature is not a separate excursion from Altena’s story. The town is compressed into a steep river valley, so views, woodland and walking paths are close to the centre. Forest tracks and longer Sauerland routes lead out from the built-up area, while the castle hill itself gives a clear sense of how the Lenne shaped settlement and transport. The visitor portal lists mapped walking and cycling options, local tours and the broader Märkischer Sauerland region; check current route conditions before setting out, especially after heavy rain. The valley’s slopes can make short distances steeper than a map suggests.
Getting there is straightforward by rail, with one detail worth knowing. The Altena (Westf.) station is served by the Ruhr-Sieg corridor between Hagen and Siegen. The city’s visitor site describes RE16 and RB91 services and says buses 37 and 38 connect the station area with the Markaner bus centre and continue along the river toward the Wire Museum. From Hagen, trains are divided at Letmathe: make sure you board the section marked for Altena and Siegen, not the Iserlohn branch. Schedules and the exact operating pattern can change, so check the day’s connection before travel. By car, the tourist office directs drivers from the A45 via Lüdenscheid-Nord, or from the A46 via Iserlohn-Oestrich and the B234 alongside the Lenne. Its arrival guide also lists parking, bus links and current travel advice.
For a first visit, arrive by train, follow the river toward the centre, take the Erlebnisaufzug up to the castle, and return on foot through the old lanes if the climb suits you. Add the Wire Museum and Lenne promenade for a day focused on industry; save Evingsen or a longer forest walk for another outing. The visitor portal brings together accommodation, food, guided tours and events, while the castle’s outer ward offers the unusual option of staying in an operating youth hostel. Altena is rewarding because it makes its own contradictions visible: a medieval stronghold substantially reshaped in the twentieth century, a global hospitality idea born in a small industrial town, and a working craft whose traces remain in the river landscape.