The name of the city Prenzlau is of Slavic origin and means "settlement of a man named Premyslaw". In fact, in the 14th century, Przemyslaw I, Duke of Teschen, ruled over the city and the entire area, so the city should truly owe its name to him. It is also said to have him to thank for the bird figure at the top of its landmark, the central gate tower, an old legend tells about how the raven got there:

One day the Slavic ruler Przemyslaw lost a valuable ring. It was believed that a squire was guilty, and as a punishment he was taken up to the central gate tower, from where he was thrown down. Years later, the duke and some helpers went hunting in the forest. When they were stopping for lunch, an old oak tree was felled nearby. In the tops of these a crow's nest was found, in which, to the amazement of everyone and to the delight of the prince, was the signet ring believed to have been stolen. Back in Prenzlau, Przemyslaw had a raven made and placed on the top of the central tower. It is no longer the same bird, but today's raven is still reminiscent of the duke, the raven and the poor squire.

Welcome to Sankt Unterholz, the domicile for families, friends and teams in Kraatz, a small village somewhere in the middle of nowhere between Prenzlau and Fürstenwerder. Here in the northern Uckermark there is a lot of nature and few people, so relaxation is inevitable.
Our house was originally a stable from the 1930s until we renovated it ecologically in 2019/20 and converted it into a holiday and seminar house. It offers 150 square meters on two floors for up to 10 people. When setting up the rooms, we attached great importance to sustainable, fair and, if possible, regional production of the furniture; restored older pieces are combined with modern and functional ones.

After you enter the house through the kitchen, you come to the 45 square meter living room, which is also a multi-purpose room with a fireplace and space for various activities: you can relax on the sofa or read, work at the large table, discuss or paint. The furniture can be used flexibly and can even be removed completely, for example to be able to sleep here or to have space for yoga sessions. Conversely, it is also great to laze around on the sofa, especially when a fire is blazing in the fireplace. Speaking of fire in the fireplace: Firewood is available on request - chopped ready, or at your own risk to chop it yourself.
For all those who cannot or do not want to do without the worldwide web, we offer 100 Mbit / s fast internet via WLAN in the house and garden as well as from various network sockets in the living room and in the bedrooms. And for those who come to work in the undergrowth, two mobile work or conference tables with comfortable chairs and a 65-inch monitor are available, upon request a printer, flipchart and presentation case.
The monitor also serves as a TV set, although we don't have a classic TV program from cable or satellite dish, but thanks to the integrated Chromecast and various preinstalled apps you can watch series, films and other content here.

The four double bedrooms are on the top floor. Just like the two bathrooms, these are each designed in a different color, so that we call them "green room", "blue room" and "red room", and there is also the "large room", which is more classic white. The 11 to 14 square meter bedrooms are equipped with queen-size beds as standard. Of course, there are also shelves, cloakrooms, tables and chairs in each of the rooms.
The house has a total of two bathrooms, one on the ground floor and one on the top floor, but both with plenty of daylight and a floor-level shower.

The house also has a 600 square meter garden with trees, bushes and flowers and a spacious wooden terrace. On this you can grill or relax in one of the deck chairs while the children play in the sandpit.

The Sankt Unterholz is a non-smoking house, so smokers have to go outside for their cigarettes. But at least every time you can enjoy the sky over the "Tuscany of the North".
Dogs are welcome on request, but only if they are nice, because we have cats right next door and our property is not fenced. The house is also not suitable for dogs who like to go on "excursions", or you would have to leash the animal most of the time, which probably does not give him that much pleasure.

Our 30 square meter and well-equipped kitchen offers space for up to 12 people at its large table and invites you to chop, cook and of course eat together. It is equipped with lots of dishes, glasses and cutlery, dishwasher & amp; Tabs, convection oven, extra wide induction hob, kettle, a contact grill, a coffee machine with coffee and a large side-by-side refrigerator with water and ice dispenser.

You don't have to travel far to fill the fridge with fresh regional products, right here in Northwestuckermark you can find high-quality mushrooms at Burkhard Trebesch's mushroom cultivation. The product portfolio ranges from the classic, pre-packaged 500 gram bowl to the complete staircase to the new selection called "Uckermärkische Champignonpfanne". In summer there are fresh berries and all year round fruit spreads, jellies, syrup, honey, lamb and eggs on the Weggun farm (in the farm shop on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., during the summer holidays from Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.). You can get fresh fish caught on site at the Trellert lake fishery right on the shores of the Sternhagener See (fish sales from May to October Thursday to Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., November to April Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.). The rustic fish restaurant of the lake fishery, which offers trout, char, pikeperch and pike in fried and smoked form, is open from May to October between Thursday and Sunday (11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.).
And there is even more fish on the Amtswerder peninsula in the Mecklenburg fish parlor at Feldberger Haussee. The restaurant offers a wide range of different fish dishes in a cozy atmosphere all year round, such as delicacies from the in-house smokehouse. These are even available in the form of smoked fish platters, which the restaurant is happy to make for every occasion.

Need more tips for eating out? The nearby wine tavern of Gutshof Kraatz, for example - avowed supporters of Slow Food Germany - awaits you with homemade apple wines and juices, but also with its seasonal cuisine made from fresh regional ingredients, from venison sausages to homemade pizza and pierogies to apple strudel. In the Gasthof zumgrün Baum there are, among other things, tarte flambée rolls, lasagna with regional organic minced meat or asparagus curry with cabbage and tagliatelle. The restaurant of the Hotel Alte Schule in Fürstenhagen is not only a Michelin star, but also an advocate of cooking from fresh ingredients, which is why it does not have a menu. In addition to local fruit and vegetables, fish, game and poultry from the region are then prepared and served when it is freshly delivered, accompanied by wines from all over the world. The menu at the Tenzo Gasthof in Feldberger Seenlandschaft offers hearty creations made from local game or lamb, fresh salads and seasonal vegetables, variants of Mecklenburg fish cuisine and imaginative desserts.

If you want, you can take a deep breath in our garden and have a relaxed barbecue on the terrace. If you want, you can also actively explore the area: the Uckermark is known for its wide fields, lush meadows and idyllic hilly landscapes, but also for countless lakes. For example the Dammsee, Großer See, Großer Parmenesee, Unterruckersee, Sternhagener See etc. Our village is not in vain in the Uckermärkische Seenlandschaft nature park. It is 6 kilometers to the bathing area in Hildebrandshagen and 7 kilometers to the one in Fürstenwerder. Furthermore, the Damerow Forest begins about one kilometer from Sankt Unterholz, and the Kiecker nature reserve is about 3 kilometers southeast of us.

The municipality of Nordwestuckermark - to which our district Kraatz also belongs - offers several manor houses and residential buildings from previous centuries as well as beautiful church buildings, such as the three-aisled castle church in the district of Kröchlendorff, the neo-Gothic church in Kraatz or the Protestant church in Beenz from the 13th century. Another highlight is Arendsee Castle made of bright red raw bricks, which was completed in 1843 for Count Albert von Schlippenbach and has a tower and winter garden, among other things.

If you need cultural food, the Vorwerk Bülowssiege is not far from Fürstenwerder and the Dammsee. Not only because of this beautiful location it is called "Gutshof der Romantik", also as a typical regional building ensemble from the beginning of the 19th century, Gut Bülowssiege is a listed building and today gives readings, lectures and concerts a historical setting.

The manor house Boitzenburg Castle is one of the largest castles in the Uckermark and is now a hotel for children and young people. It is also used for a wide variety of events, such as birthdays, weddings, confirmations, anniversaries or seminars and conferences. The castle is surrounded by a spacious park with a chapel and striking memorial temples. The stable, which is part of the castle ensemble, houses event and catering rooms as well as foam factories for chocolate, ice cream, cakes, a coffee roastery and even a brewery. Castle tours are always offered on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays in the season, the cost is 3.50 euros per person.

The Fallada village of Carwitz lies between dark green forests and rolling hills. The writer Hans Fallada (actually Rudolf Dietzen) sought refuge in the village in 1933 and lived here with his wife Anna and children for eleven years. After the war he even became mayor of the neighboring community of Feldberg for a short time. In the street Zum Bohnenwerder today the Hans Fallada house directly on Lake Carwitzer is a reminder of the author's stay in the village. A small museum has been set up there, which gives an insight into his life and work.

The city of Prenzlau not only offers good shopping opportunities. The urban area borders on the Uckermark Lakes Nature Park in the southwest, and the two largest lakes in the Uckermark adjoin it in the south: the aforementioned Unteruckersee and the Oberuckersee in the Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve. The St. Mary's Church, the main Protestant parish church of the city, is worth seeing. The listed church is one of the brick Gothic churches richest in architectural decoration in northern Germany. With a length of around 1,400 meters, almost half of the former Prenzlau city wall has been preserved. On a 3-kilometer circular route you will see the Mitteltor, Hexen, Powder Tower, Schwedter Gate Tower (also known as the observatory), Blindower Gate Tower (also called Stettiner Gate Tower) and Wiekhäuser. You can also see the Roland statue - a symbol of city rights - on the market square or the Slavic boat Ukrasvan, which has permanently anchored in the area of the Sonnenkap campsite. The former Dominican monastery in Prenzlau is now home to the Museum of Cultural History - which, in addition to changing special exhibitions, includes a permanent exhibition on the cultural history of the region -, a picture gallery and the KlosterLadenGalerie. From May to September the monastery also invites you to the "Cultural Summer in the Dominican Monastery in Prenzlau" with a mixture of diverse events (including live music, theater afternoons, poetry slam, but also the German-Polish dealer market) in the atmospheric ambience of the cemetery and interesting special exhibitions in the museum a. In addition, the "UM Festival for Contemporary Art" - with a lot of art, literature and music - takes place every 2 years in the communities in the area, including in Sternhagen Gut, Pinnow, Fergitz and Gustavsruh.

The area also offers even more culture, for example the Melzow summer concerts. These were founded in 2002 by the association "Friends of the Melzower Church" e.V. to save the 17th century village church in Melzow. In addition to classical and organ music, there is also vocal music or jazz. Admission to the benefit concerts with German and international artists is free, but a donation is requested. In exchange, you are cordially invited to a glass of wine or beer after the concerts and you can visit an exhibition in the church before or after the concerts.
As part of the Uckermark Music Weeks, there have been over twenty first-class concerts in the district every summer since 1992. What is special about this is that the concert venues also include atmospherically attractive granaries, stables, barns, churches and manor houses of cultural and historical significance, as well as open-air events in gardens and castle ruins. It is a festival of early music with excursions to musical cultures from distant countries, from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Right in our garden there is a sandpit where the children can play while you relax on the terrace right next to it. And of course the vast natural surroundings also have a couple of exciting programs ready for children, and hikes or a visit to one of the many lakes in the region also offer wonderful moments for younger guests.

You can book a special kind of hiking tour through the region with children over 6 years of age via celine: both the covered wagon holiday and the donkey hike are sure to be an unforgettable experience thanks to the animal companions. In the case of tours with the covered wagon, these are planned individually and depending on the weather, but there are also the three ready-made programs "Seven Lakes", "Wallpfadtour" (cultural and historical tour) or "Natural history tour" from which you can choose; In any case, you will be able to experience the closeness to nature intensively, thanks to just one horsepower in a decelerated form. On the donkey hike you have to go yourself, but you are accompanied by a pack donkey, which is not only a great porter for luggage, but also a pleasant travel companion. With long-eared ears in tow or the other way around, you hike leisurely (3 to 5 kilometers per hour) through the varied landscape of the Schorfheide-Chorin biosphere reserve.

The summer toboggan run at Burg Stargard, with 8 banked curves and 2 bridges on the 720-meter-long route, is waiting for young visitors. Embedded in nature, you can overcome a difference in altitude of 30 meters, which you can experience with a lift uphill and with a swing downhill. The track is open daily from April to October from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A visit with children in Templin is worthwhile for several reasons: Here is the natural thermal bath Templin, which offers a brine bath, toddlers, sauna and wellness area all year round and whatever the weather for young and old; Here you will also find the "Templiner Ring" go-kart track, one of the most beautiful outdoor go-kart tracks in Germany, and the western town of El Dorado, where films with Hollywood stars such as Quentin Tarrantino, Brad Pitt and George Clooney have already been shot. There are regular stunt and Indian shows, but also an adventure playground, petting zoo, a stunt workshop for children and much more.

You will feel a touch of Africa in the middle of the Uckermark at the ostrich farm Berkenlatten, where you can experience the largest birds on earth up close. With the exception of Tuesday and Wednesday, guided tours are offered here every day, during which you can visit Hugo ostrich, for example.