Niederwald Landscape Park

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Map of the coppice from 1837

The landscaped park Niederwald (also: Ostein'scher Park ) is one of the earliest romantic parks in Germany and is available as an artistic, historical and urban cultural monument under monument protection .

Geographical location

Round temple

The park is located high above the Rhine Valley on the Niederwald in the High Taunus between Rüdesheim am Rhein , Assmannshausen and Aulhausen in the Rheingau-Taunus district in Hesse . It covers 226 hectares and is part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley Cultural Landscape World Heritage Site . The park is part of the southern entrance to the Upper Middle Rhine Valley World Heritage Site. The Niederwald monument was erected on the southern edge of the park in the 19th century .

Emergence

Rossel

From 1764, Johann Friedrich Karl Maximilian von Ostein , a nephew of the Archbishop of Mainz Johann Friedrich Karl von Ostein , first opened up the wooded mountain height as a hunting forest by building a hunting lodge and an access avenue. From 1774 to 1777, the count - as a forerunner of the romanticism of the Rhine - had a number of wooden structures built that were related to the impressive landscape. A farmhouse , a hermitage and a charcoal kiln were built , symbolizing the simple life in seclusion and serving as excursion destinations for visitors. From 1787 to 1791 several stone buildings followed according to plans by the French architect François Ignace Mangin . A round temple with a domed roof supported by columns, the artificial ruins of Rossel , the knight's hall and the magic cave with magic hut were built at particularly striking vantage points . This staging of the landscape was primarily reserved for the count and his guests, but on certain dates the population also enjoyed it.

Coppice and tourism

Cable car between Rüdesheim and the Niederwald monument

For a long time after the Count's death in 1809, nobody was interested in the preservation of the landscape park. The wooden buildings fell into disrepair, and have now all disappeared. Two of the stone buildings are almost complete, the rest of the remains. The temple , which was destroyed in World War II, was rebuilt in 2006 through a private initiative.

Since the construction of the Niederwald Monument in 1883 and its development by the Niederwald Railway , not only the monument has been visited, but many visitors also take a walk through the Niederwald Landscape Park with its various sights. Beginning at the mountain station of the Rüdesheim cable car , the route to the monument first leads past the temple . Behind the monument and the eagle observatory, the path then touches the viewpoints Naheblick and Hunsrückblick and the location of the former Hermitage . This is followed by the Rossel , an artificial ruin from which one has a magnificent view of the Rhine Valley and the Binger Loch . A branch leads to the knight's hall , of which only the foundation walls are preserved (view of Trechtingshausen and Reichenstein Castle ). Next, the circular route reaches the magic cave with the magic hut . In the past, the only way to get to the latter was through the winding corridor of the magic cave, in which a stone magician sat. At the end of the corridor, lines of sight to lookout points on the other side of the Rhine opened up from the three windows of the magic hut. Both structures are accessible again and the line of sight to Rheinstein Castle has been restored. Finally, the path reaches the Niederwald hunting lodge , from where visitors can either take a chairlift down steeply to Assmannshausen or return to the temple via the avenue that has been developed as Landstrasse 3034 .

Restoration of garden art

Magic cave behind magic hut

Today the park is looked after by the administration of the State Palaces and Gardens of Hesse . After the Upper Middle Rhine Valley region was recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, efforts to restore the original landscape park have gained priority. By the 250th anniversary of the founding of the park in 2014, the park is to be revitalized and the remaining parts of the park, such as the magic cave, the knight's hall vantage point, the artificial ruins of Rossel and other vantage points, are to be connected by an expanded network of paths. For this purpose, funds from the federal program for UNESCO World Heritage sites in Germany have also been made available since 2011 . The park is part of the World Heritage Gardens route .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ FAZ of January 8, 2011: Page 50: A certificate of garden art is renewed.
  2. ^ Maintenance work for Osteinschen Park in: FAZ of January 21, 2012, page 56

Web links

Commons : Landschaftspark Niederwald  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 59 ′ 0 ″  N , 7 ° 53 ′ 0 ″  E