Worth a Visit: Siebengebirge – the Land of Dragons and Donkeys

Worth a Visit: Siebengebirge – the Land of Dragons and Donkeys

Now, what a lovely site here and a lovely place 
to spend a nice summer day here on the banks of the Rhine in Königswinter. Königswinter, which 
is often called the gate to the Siebengebirge, and that’s the area that we’re going 
to explore today. Welcome to “Pardon my German” for this video. Glad to have you 
here. And we’re going to see some lovely places here in the Siebengebirge area, 
particularly of course the Drachenfels, the Dragon Rock and we’re going to go there 
and some other sites. So I hope you enjoy it, and if you do then please give the video a 
like and consider subscribing. Thank you. We begin this excursion at a 
historic site, the Petersberg. What is a hotel again these days used to 
be the seat of the Allied high commission from 1949 through 1952. A bit later it became 
the guest house of West Germany’s government. From the Petersberg, we have a lovely view of 
the nearby Drachenfelds and the Rhine Valley, including Rheinhotel Dreesen, which we 
visited on our second excursion to Bonn. There’s a couple of stories regarding 
Petersberg that I’d love to share with you. The first one I’ve only heard, because 
legend has it that sometimes in the 1970s Leonid Brezhnev visited West Germany 
and he stayed here at Petersberg, and as a present from the West German government 
he got a brand new Mercedes-Benz. And driving down the winding narrow road that leads 
to and from Petersberg Brezhnev crashed the car. So, don’t know if this is true. I have 
just been told. But the other story is true and I’m a part of it. Because in the 
early 1990s I was member of a small charity bringing goods and help to the Balkans. And one 
of the persons I had the great privilege to make the acquaintance of was the then exile prime 
minister of Kosovo, Dr. Bujar Bukoshi. And I had met him before and then Bukoshi came here 
to the Petersburg, to talk about the situation in Kosovo and he recognized me and I had put on 
some weight in that year. So he recognized me, came towards me, patted my tummy and said, “Young 
man, you have to watch your weight.” And so I can rightfully say that a head of government took some 
personal interest in my health and well-being. Our next stop is the former abbey of 
Heisterbach which once was a Cistercian abbey. Heisterbach’s most impressive site are the 
ruins of the old church which once stood here. We’re back in Königswinter. A promenade 
along the Rhine is very inviting. This fountain is dedicated to generations of 
donkeys who carried people up to Drachenfels Rock. The church of St. Remigius was closed 
on the day of my visit. Fortunately,  I had some footage of a previous excursion there. And now it’s time to slay a dragon. 
At least that is what the name of the Siebengebirge’s most famous 
mountain indicates. Drachenfels, Dragon Rock. And indeed, according to a popular 
legend, a dragon once lived there. And some  sources even link it to the dragon slain by 
Siegfried, the hero of the Nibelungen saga. We don’t climb the mountain on 
the back of a donkey. Instead, we use the rack railway, which was opened in 1883 
and is therefore Germany’s oldest such railway. The castle on top of the Drachenfels was built 
by Cologne’s prince bishops in the 12th century, and destroyed during the 30 
years war in the 17th century. Quarries around the Drachenfels provided 
material throughout the Middle Ages. The  Cologne Cathedral, among others, was 
partly made of stone from this area. Drachenfels became famous in 
the era of Rhine romanticism, in the English-speaking world mostly 
through some works of Lord Byron. It  is sometimes described as Europe’s 
most frequently ascended mountain. And then there is Drachenburg Palace. So, I’ve been here quite a number of times, 
but this is my first visit to this palace here: Drachenburg Palace. Costs €10, and 
from what I’ve heard, it’s worth it. This palace was built in the 1880s in a 
blend of neo-gothic and neo-renaissance  style. And fitting the times, it was not built by 
a nobleman but by a maestro of the stock market. Stefan Sarter, later gentled as Baron von Sarter, was a man of petty bourgeois upbringing. 
After learning his trade at a Cologne  based private bank, he later made a 
fortune at the Paris Stock Exchange. Sarter built this palace to live there with 
the love of his life. Unfortunately, that lady passed away before the palace was completed. So, 
Sarter never lived there, using it only on a few occasions to host important guests. Today, it 
is a museum dedicated to the Wilhelmian style. Palace and garden can sometimes be 
spotted in movies and television shows. As we’re descending back to Königswinter, thank you for watching today and I 
hope to see you again soon. Bye-bye.

Please follow me on an excursion to the Siebengebirge – the Seven Mountains – on the eastern bank of river Rhine, right at the northern tip of the Rhine Gorge. We will visit numerous sites, among others the famous Drachenfels – aka Dragon Rock – with its castle ruin and the lovely Drachenburg palace. And along the way, I will tell you of an occasion where a head of government showed some interest in my personal health and well-being…

00:00 Intro
00:44 Petersberg (Former Government Guest House)
04:27 Former Heisterbach Abbey
06:41 Königswinter City Centre
09:08 Dragon Rock Rack Railway
11:14 Dragon Rock Castle
13:39 Drachenburg Palace

FURTHER READING:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6nigswinter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petersberg_(Siebengebirge)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisterbach_Abbey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drachenfels_(Siebengebirge)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drachenfels_Railway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Drachenburg

#germany #travel #tourism #rhine #königswinter #drachenfels #petersberg