Drachenfels, Königswinter and surroundings
Wolkenburg
The mountains Drachenfels and Wolkenburg, connected by a lower-lying mountain ridge, characterize the image of the Siebengebirge.
Articles by Petra Willnecker
History
Kingdom of the Francs
Ar the time of the Kingdom of the Franks, under the Merovingians and Carolingians, the first villages in the Siebengebirge came into being. At the beginning of the 5th century, two groups of Franks had emerged: the Salian Franks lived at Tournai, Cambrai and Arras, today’s Belgium and northern France, back then part of the Western Roman Empire.
Medieval castles
Dragons and lions in the castle?
Drachenfels = Dragon’s Rock, Löwenburg = Lions Castle – these names sound like places from a fairy tale. About the heraldic animals dragons and lions.
Nature
Wilderness Siebengebirge
In large areas of the Siebengebirge we leave nature be, that is wilderness Siebengebirge. “A home for sister beech and brother woodpecker”, as Francis of Assisi might have put it.
Drachenfels, Königswinter and surroundings
Nachtigallental
The Nachtigallental, in English Nightingale Valley, in the Siebengebirge is just wonderful. When you are in Königswinter-city, walk up Bahnhofsstraße street, and you are there. From the first moment onwards you feel like in another, merry world.
High and Late Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The castle ruins Drachenfels, Löwenburg and Rosenau, Heisterbach Abbey and the ruins of the medieval church on Petersberg remind us of the Middle Ages in the Siebengebirge. It is the time of knights, minnesang, medieval castles and the crusades.
High and Late Middle Ages
Ottonian and Salian dynasties
Ottonian and Salian dynasty. The Holy Roman Empire comes into being, in our region the archbishopric of Cologne. Rhineland, around 900. Our region was part of the medieval Duchy of Lorraine in the west of the East Francia. While the Capetians continued to reign in West Francia, they had died out in East Francia.
Nature
Siebengebirge Flowers
This post shows some native flowers from the Siebengebirge. In the shade of the ruins of the Heisterbach, beautiful flowers grow, among them rare ones like the wild tulip. If you walk around Mount Lohrberg in June and July, you will see bright purple digitales in front of and between the deep green conifers. Colorful flowers also sprout in the […]
High and Late Middle Ages
Hohenstaufen era
The castle ruins Drachenfels, Löwenburg, Rosenau and Heisterbach Abbey remind us of Hohenstaufen era in the Siebengebirge. We will meet famous men.
Around the Ölberg
Rosenau
Mount Rosenau stands in the middle of the Siebengebirge between the mountains Nonnenstromberg and Ölberg. Coming on the hiking trail that goes all around Mount Ölberg (Ölbergringweg), a path leads to the Rosenau with the ruin of a small medieval castle. You will see the signpost “Aufstieg zur Rosenau”, ascent to Rosenau.