Drachenfels (Siebengebirge)
The Drachenfels ("Dragon's Rock", German pronunciation: [ˈdʁaxənˌfɛls]) is a mountain 321 metres (1,053 ft) in the Siebengebirge mountain range between Königswinter and Bad Honnef in Germany.
Contents |
[edit] History
The ruined castle atop the mountain, built between 1138 and 1167 by Archbishop Arnold I of Cologne bears the same name and was originally intended for the protection of Cologne to 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 mountains in the Siebengebirge, it's closest to the river Rhine, which facilitates easy transport by barges, thus making it an excellent place for a quarry. This 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.
[edit] Tourism
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 gained the rock international attention and it became a highlight of the socalled Rhine romanticism. Poems were composed by people like Edward Bulwer-Lytton[1] and locally by Heinrich Heine[2]. Thus popularized, it quickly became a tourist attraction, which it still is.
A neogothic castle, lower on the mountain, 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 satify demand from growing tourism. The Drachenfels is sometimes irreverendly called Schwiegermutterfelsen (mother-in-law rock) or, because of it's popularity amongs especially Dutch tourists, the highest mountain of Holland.
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 70's a new restaurant (with view) was built on top of the mountain in the then popular brutalistic style. In January 2011 work began to demolish it, renovate the buildings from the 30's and replace the restaurant with a glass cube. The project is expected to be finished in the summer of 2012.
[edit] Legends
Several legends surround the Drachenfels, most famous of which is the one which recounts that Siegfried – the hero of the Nibelungenlied – killed the dragon Fafnir living in a cave in the mountain, then bathed in its blood to become invulnerable. Hence, the mountain 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 then jumped into the Rhine and was never heard from again.
A third, less pious story has it the dragon one day attacked a boat laden with gunpowder, causing an explosion which destroyed the ship and killed the dragon.
[edit] Viticulture
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.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
- This article is a condensed version of the German article.
[edit] External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
- Official page (in German)
- Information around the Drachenfels (in German)
- Apiary Honighäuschen at the Drachenfels (in English)
Coordinates: 50°39′55″N 7°12′35″E / 50.66528°N 7.20972°E
|
|||||||||||||
 |
This North Rhine-Westphalia location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
