The Drachenfels ("Dragon's Rock", German pronunciation: [ˈdʁaxənˌfɛls] ) is a hill (321 metres (1,053 ft)) in the Siebengebirge uplands between Königswinter and Bad Honnef in Germany. The hill was formed by rising magma that could not break through to the surface, and then cooled and became solid underneath. It is the subject of much tourism and romanticism in the North Rhine-Westphalia area.
The ruined castle Burg Drachenfels, on the summit of the hill, was built between 1138 and 1167 by Archbishop Arnold I of Cologne and bears the same name. It was originally intended for the protection of the Cologne region from any assault from the south. Originally it consisted of a bergfried with court, chapel and living quarters for servants. The castle was slighted in 1634, during the Thirty Years' War, by the Protestant Swedes and never rebuilt. As a strategic asset it had outlived its usefulness. Erosion due to the continued quarrying undermined much of the remains and only a small part is left today.
The rock, like the rest of the Siebengebirge, is formed by the remnants of a volcano and has been the site of a trachyte quarry since Roman times, which, amongst others, delivered the building material for the Cologne Cathedral. Of all the hills in the Siebengebirge, it is closest to the river Rhine, which facilitates easy transport by barges, thus making it an excellent place for a quarry. Quarrying ended in 1836, when the Prussian government bought the quarry. In 1922 the first protection measures were put in place and in 1956 the site was declared a national park.
The rock and the ruins gained popularity in the romantic era, after the Napoleonic Wars had ended. The visit of Lord Byron to Mehlem and its appearance in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage provided the rock with international attention. It soon became a highlight of the so-called Rhine romanticism. Poems were composed by people including Edward Bulwer-Lytton [1] and locally by Heinrich Heine. [2] Thus popularized, and, since 1883, accessible by rail it evolved into a tourist attraction, which it still is.
A neogothic castle, lower on the hill, is named Schloss Drachenburg and was built in 1882 by Baron Stephan von Sarter . Both the top and Schloss Drachenburg can be reached by the Drachenfelsbahn , a rack railway built in the 19th century to satisfy demand from growing tourism. The Drachenfels is sometimes irreverently called Schwiegermutterfelsen (mother-in-law rock) or jokingly referred to as "the highest hill in Holland" because of its popularity among Dutch tourists. It is the first substantial elevation one encounters when traveling upstream on the Rhine from the Netherlands.
The castled crag of Drachenfels
Frowns o’er the wide and winding Rhine.
Whose breast of waters broadly swells
Between the banks which bear the vine,
And hills all rich with blossomed trees,
And fields which promise corn and wine,
And scattered cities crowning these,
Whose far white walls along them shine,
Have strewed a scene, which I should see
With double joy wert thou with me!
In the 1970s a new restaurant (with view) was built on top of the hill in the then popular brutalistic style. In January 2011 work began to demolish it, renovate the buildings from the 1930s and replace the restaurant with a glass cube. The new restaurant was opened November 30, 2012, [3] the outside facilities were finished June 2, 2013. [4]
Several legends surround the Drachenfels, most famously that Siegfried – the hero of the Nibelungenlied – killed the dragon Fafnir, who lived in a cave in the hill, then bathed in its blood to become invulnerable. Hence, the hill is named the "Dragon's Rock", Drachenfels.
About a third of the way up is the Nibelungenhalle, built in 1913, a gallery of paintings by the symbolist painter Hermann Hendrich depicting scenes from Richard Wagner's operas.
Another legend tells of prisoners being sacrificed to a dragon. One of these was a Christian virgin, who, in her fear, held up a little cross. In fear of this holy symbol, the dragon jumped into the Rhine and was never heard from again.
A third story has it the dragon one day attacked a boat laden with gunpowder, causing an explosion which destroyed the ship and killed the dragon.
Next to Oberdollendorf, some 10 km downstream, the Drachenfels is the most northerly slope used for viticulture along the Rhine. Riesling dominates, but in smaller quantities also Gewürztraminer, Scheurebe, Dornfelder, Kerner, Grau- , Weiss- and Spätburgunder are cultivated. The slopes are maintained and harvested by hand, since they are too steep for machinery.
North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a state (Land) in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the most populous state in Germany. Apart from the city-states, it is also the most densely populated state in Germany. Covering an area of 34,084 square kilometres (13,160 sq mi), it is the fourth-largest German state by size.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: A Romaunt is a long narrative poem in four parts written by Lord Byron. The poem was published between 1812 and 1818. Dedicated to "Ianthe", it describes the travels and reflections of a young man disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry and looking for distraction in foreign lands. In a wider sense, it is an expression of the melancholy and disillusionment felt by a generation weary of the wars of the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. The title comes from the term childe, a medieval title for a young man who was a candidate for knighthood.
The Drachenfels Railway is a rack railway line in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany. The line runs from Königswinter, on the east bank of the Rhine, to the summit of the Drachenfels mountain at an altitude of 289 m (948 ft). Besides the two terminal stations, an intermediate station serves the Schloss Drachenburg.
The Siebengebirge, occasionally Sieben Mountains or Seven Mountains, are a hill range of the German Central Uplands on the east bank of the Middle Rhine, southeast of Bonn.
Königswinter is a town and summer resort in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Drachenfels is the name of
Bad Honnef is a spa town in Germany near Bonn in the Rhein-Sieg district, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the border of the neighbouring state Rhineland-Palatinate. To the north it lies on the slopes of the Drachenfels mountain, part of the Siebengebirge.
Weeze is a municipality in the Lower Rhine (Niederrhein) region, located in the northwestern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, specifically in the district of Kleve and the Düsseldorf region.
Middle Rhine is the section of the Rhine between Bingen and Bonn in Germany. It flows through the Rhine Gorge, a formation created by erosion, which happened at about the same rate as an uplift in the region, leaving the river at about its original level, and the surrounding lands raised. This gorge is quite deep, about 130 metres (430 ft) from the top of the rocks down to the average water-line.
Drachenfels Castle is a ruined hill castle near the village of Busenberg in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It lies within the German half of the Wasgau region, the southern part of the Palatinate Forest.
The Cologne Lowland, also called the Cologne Bay or, less commonly, the Cologne Bight, is a densely populated area of Germany lying between the cities of Bonn, Aachen, and Düsseldorf/Neuss. It is situated in the southwest of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and forms the natural southern conclusion of the Lower Rhenish lowlands and the transition to the Rhenish Massif.
Oberdollendorf is a municipal district of Königswinter, a city in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The vineyards which dominate the town are part of the Mittelrhein wine region.
Schloss Drachenburg or Drachenburg Castle is a private villa styled as a palace and constructed in the late 19th century. It was completed in only two years (1882–84) on the Drachenfels hill in Königswinter, a German town on the east bank of the Rhine, south of the city of Bonn. Baron Stephan von Sarter (1833–1902), a broker and banker, planned to live there, but never did.
Arnold I was Archbishop of Cologne from 1137 to 1151.
Drachenfels Castle is the name of the following German castle ruins:
The Rhine romanticism was the interpretation of the landscape conditions and history of the Rhine Valley in the cultural-historical period of the romanticism, by the end of the 18th century until the late 19th century and was continued in all forms of art expression.
The Petersberg, formerly known as the Stromberg, is a mountain in the Siebengebirge mountain range near Bonn, Germany. It overlooks the cities of Königswinter, on the right bank of the Rhine river, and Bonn on the opposite side. Today the peak is the site of the Hotel Petersberg, which serves as a guest house of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The Petersberg Railway, or Petersbergbahn, was a rack railway line in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany. The line ran from Königswinter to the summit of the Petersberg mountain, and was built to serve the Hotel Petersberg there. The line opened in 1889 and closed in 1958.
The Lower Rhine Bay, sometimes called the Lower Rhine Bight, is a lowland plain in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia that cuts into the Rhenish Massif. From a natural region perspective it is a major unit group which includes the Cologne Lowland around the city of Cologne as well as the land lying to the west and, in a clearly narrower strip of land, to the east of the central Cologne plain. That said, the term "Cologne Bay" or "Cologne Bight" is occasionally used, pars pro toto, for the entire region.
50°39′55″N7°12′35″E / 50.66528°N 7.20972°E
Castles, Fortresses and Palaces in Germany - The Middle Rhine Valley (North to South) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Explanation of location |  | |
| Lower Middle Rhine Valley | ||
| Upper Middle Rhine Valley |
| |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
