Koblenz city forest
The Koblenz City Forest is a closed forest area south of the city of Koblenz , on the left side of the Rhine on the periphery of the Hunsrück Heights. The local recreation area includes a branching network of hiking trails, nature trails to archaeologically and geologically interesting sites, two restaurants, a wildlife park and children's playgrounds.
location
The Koblenz city forest is 2772 ha in size and essentially belongs to the Koblenz-Karthaus district . In the south it borders on the municipality of Waldesch and the Rhenser Forest. In the east it ends at steep slate rock cliffs , a formation from the Lower Devonian , which descends over 100 m down to the Rhine ( Koblenz-Stolzenfels district ), cut through by some valleys ( Laubach , Königsbacher Tal, Siechhaustal, Gründgesbachtal). In the west, the high forest slopes gently towards the Moselle ( Koblenz-Lay and Koblenz-Moselweiß ); The border to the municipality of Dieblich is the Konderbach . The Koblenz city forest is cut through in a north-south direction by the B 327 ( Hunsrückhöhenstrasse ).
history
In prehistoric times, people preferred to stay on the surrounding heights in order to avoid the damp climate and the partly swampy soils along the Rhine and Moselle. This also included the area of today's Koblenz city forest, which at that time was still largely free of forests and consisted of meadows and fields. On the basis of numerous archaeological finds, a continuous, approximately thousand-year-old settlement can be proven. The Oberlahnsteiner Robert Bodewig was able to prove the remains of 24 villas and farmsteads as well as 28 graves and burial fields around 1900 .
The most important Celtic monument is the refuge and cult site of the Treverians on the Dommelberg on the Rhine side, the oldest part of which dates from the late urn field period .
A Roman mountain settlement then emerged from the Trevererdorf , which the historian Pliny, together with Confluentes located below on the Moselle, called it Vicus Ambitarvius supra Confluentes . Bodewig assumes that two children, Drusilla and a son who died prematurely, of the Roman general Nero Claudius Germanicus and his wife Agrippina were born there in the years 14 to 16 AD - that is, siblings of the future Roman emperor Caligula .
The mountain village consisted mainly of farms. In some farms, however, charcoal was burned, glass was melted or iron was smelted and supplied to the Roman army. The cultic focus was the Gallo-Roman temple complex , which was uncovered in 1898 and consecrated to Mercurius and his Gallic companion Rosmerta . A square cella with an altar, surrounded by a portico , approx. 19 × 18 m in size, stood in the middle of a sacred area ( temenos ) surrounded by a wall , which had at least three entrances and various smaller buildings in addition to a fountain. The area measured at its widest point 106 m in diameter. The complex, which was restored in 1986/87, of which only the foundation walls have remained, is located in the upper part of the connecting path to the right of the Eiserne Hand crossroads up to the Pastors' Path . The settlement ran through a connecting route already laid out by the Celts on the watershed between the Rhine and the Moselle, which was still used by the Romans as a country road between Confluentes (= Koblenz) and Vincum (= Bingen ). The part that has been preserved in the city forest and is referred to on the maps as the Old Roman Road runs as an asphalt road from the federal highway 327 over the driveway to the forester's house Kühkopf, to Kühborn, over the Johanniskreuz, the Bäckers Kreuzchen to the wayside cross Eiserne Hand. From there the road led in the direction of Waldesch and Pfaffenheck , turned with one arm from there to Bontobrice (= Boppard ) and the other continued over the Hunsrück to Bingen. After the end of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, the history of settlement broke off and the entire area was gradually overgrown.
In modern times , the supervision and administration of the urban forest was done only by lay people. For this purpose, two citizens were elected forest masters and two others each from the city, from Lützel , Neuendorf and from Moselweiß were elected forest foresters. Only in the 19th century was it possible to manage the Koblenz city forest through trained, full-time foresters. Since there was no timber trade in earlier times, the forest hardly brought any income for the city. Therefore, in the middle of the 17th century , the magistrate cleared some forest districts in order to create fields, meadows and farms, which were then leased for a few years. In 1683 Johann Schüller received the lease of the farm on the Rhine side above Kapellen-Stolzenfels for 12 years . The property, henceforth called Schüllerhof, was last mentioned in 1739. At that time there was only one courtyard building, agriculture had been given up before 1720. Not far from the Schüllerhof was another homestead, which was leased in 1698 to a Schneider family from Waldesch. This operation was also soon abandoned. Both farms burned down at the end of the 18th century. Only two small ponds, located directly on the Pastors' Path, have survived. On the Moselle side, on the Layerberg, the Güntershof was built around 1655 and probably a little later the Lauxenhof. Because of the poor quality of the soil, both farms and those on the Rhine side had to be stopped again. Johann Günter canceled the lease for his farm in 1702, which was then leased in equal parts to ten layers of citizens. In 1779 the lands were completely neglected and the courtyard buildings fell into disrepair. Agriculture on the larger Lauxenhof had been given up around 1700 and the property was used as a sheep farm . In 1790 the remaining buildings were auctioned for demolition. The most important and largest of all forest farms was the Remsteckhof. The name is said to be derived from vines . Accordingly, in the past, Layers or Moselweiss citizens probably cultivated some vineyards on the slopes around the farm. The farm was founded in 1654/56 together with the Günterhof. In 1699 the Runkelt family from Metternich owned the lease near Münstermaifeld . In 1768 the remaining fields and meadows of the Lauxenhof and in 1779 those of the Günterhof were added to the Remsteckhof, which in the 1820s still owned over 250 acres . However, they had already started to reforest the poorer soils. On November 11, 1840, the city canceled the lease and agricultural operations were also discontinued here. The forest administration moved into the two main buildings. Early 20th century was the forester's house preserved to this day Remstecken built to replace the two old farm buildings. The forester's house Kühkopf was built on the Rhine side as early as 1843/45.
Since the middle of the 19th century, the first parts of the Koblenz city forest have been developed as a local recreation area with the establishment of the Laubach cold water healing facility. In 1892 a forest restaurant was built on the Rittersturz .
Excursion destinations
To the east of the B 327 is the hiking area around the historic Roman road, although nothing of the original paving has been preserved. Various parking lots are involved
- the viewpoint Rittersturz , where the basis for the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany was laid in 1948 with the Rittersturz Conference ,
- the Kühkopf , with 382 m the highest elevation in the Koblenz city forest with a former forester's house from 1843 (now a restaurant) and the Koblenz telecommunications tower ,
- the Dommelberg (225 m), oldest settlement core of today's urban forest area with Celtic ring walls,
- the Hasenberg (273 m) with a view over the Rhine,
- the Augustahöhe (349 m) with a pavilion dedicated to Empress Augusta ; the view of Lahnstein , which was free in the 19th century , has grown over today. The view of the Rhine through a forest clearing is rather below (317 m) at the newly built Schwerin Hut and opens to the north on the left bank of the Rhine to the city of Koblenz as far as the Deutsches Eck and over the city districts on the right bank of the Rhine and the Ehrenbreitstein fortress to Vallendar and the heights of the Westerwald ;
- the pastor's path (approx. 8 km) between Waldesch and Koblenz-Stolzenfels, which the common pastor of both parishes once had to walk on Sunday mornings in all seasons and in all weathers to read mass in both churches. The remains of the Roman Mercury temple and the surrounding Roman settlement lie on it, and about 2 km further on at Schüllerhof there is a site of a Villa Rustica , which was located by Robert Bodewig around 1900, but was only excavated in 1991. The rectangular area with the manor house, grain barn and stables was surrounded by an enclosure wall. Little can be seen today.
To the west of the B 327 , the most important local recreation destination for the Koblenz families is the Rempin Wildlife Park with a former forester's house (restaurant); Nearby are the foundation walls of the most famous Villa Rustica in the Koblenz city forest, which Bodewig also originally recognized and which have now been partially reconstructed. Hiking trails go from there to Waldesch and the Moselle, for example over the Layer Kopf to Koblenz-Moselweiß and along Remsteck Bach, Eschbach and Silberkaulsbach (Roman burial ground) down into the Kondertal .
Nature trails
As part of the 2000th anniversary of the city of Koblenz in 1992, a geological, regional and archaeological hiking trail was created in the Koblenz city forest.
The geological and regional study trail runs in the area of Kühkopf and Rittersturz and has 12 stations with documentation boards. Elevation structure, weathering, rock debris, basins and terraces, rocks, climate and water, the geology of the Rhine Valley and the main features of the valley formation in general as well as an outcrop through rock layers are explained.
The archaeological nature trail connects with 7 stations, partly on the route of the historical Roman road, as prominent corner points the prehistoric settlements on the Dommelberg, Celtic burial mounds at the Kühkopf, the manor near Remsteck, Roman settlements on the pastors path and the Mercurius temple.
Demarcation
Based on a donation from the Koblenz citizens to the Schoenstatt Augustinian Sisters in 1198, there was also a Koblenz city forest on the right bank of the Rhine. This non-closed forest around Vallendar, Arzheim, Immendorf, Simmern and Neuhäusel is no longer referred to as the Koblenz city forest .
literature
- Hans Bellinghausen: The Merkur temple in the Coblenz city forest [Part 1] . In: Koblenzer Heimatblatt . No. 47 . Koblenz November 15, 1925 ( dilibri.de ).
- Hans Bellinghausen: The Merkur temple in the Coblenz city forest [Part 2] . In: Koblenzer Heimatblatt . No. 48 . Koblenz November 22, 1925 ( dilibri.de ).
- Robert Bodewig: A Trever village in the Coblenz city forest . In: West German magazine for history and art . tape 19 , 1900, pp. 1-67 ( archive.org ).
- Wolfgang Frank: Nature trails in the Koblenz city forest . Ed .: City of Koblenz, Office for Real Estate and Forests. Koblenz 1993 (72 pages).
- Willi Michels: Our city forest - the green lung of Koblenz . Ed .: City of Koblenz, Office for Real Estate and Forests. Koblenz 1993 (166 pages).
- City of Koblenz, Office for City Surveying and Land Management (Ed.): Hiking map of the Koblenz city forest - recreation between the Rhine and Moselle . Koblenz 2017 (scale: 1:10 000).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bodewig, pp. 2-13, 32-47.
- ^ Bellinghausen, Temple of Merkur [Part 1].
- ↑ Bodewig, p. 65.
- ^ Bellinghausen, Temple of Merkur [Part 1 u. 2].
- ^ Josef Hagen: Explanations for the Historical Atlas of the Rhine Province (= publications of the Society for Rhenish History . Volume 12 ). 8 (Roman roads of the Rhine Province). Bonn u. Leipzig 1923, p. 222–226 ( uni-koeln.de ).
- ↑ R. Spindler: Former farms in the Coblenz city forest . In: Middle Rhine history sheets . tape 5 , no. 12 , 1925, pp. 2-3 ( dilibri.de ).
Coordinates: 50 ° 18 ′ 23 " N , 7 ° 33 ′ 33" E