Künstliches Land! Entdeckungstour am alten Tagebau Frechen

In the organizer's words:

Just outside Cologne, 250 km² of land has been completely recreated!

A very special piece of land was created at the old Frechen open-cast mine and even received a papal blessing!

During this walk, we will discover together what is behind this and why five villages disappeared and 7000 people lost their homes. We will also go in search of traces: What is left of the vanished villages today?

The meeting point for our tour is the parking lot at Marienfeld in Kerpen at 13:00.

Our route takes us past the former site of the vanished village of Mödrath to Papsthügel and then to the lost village of Bottenbroich. Here we discover the last relic of the industrial history of Frechen's coal-mined open-cast mine. After a longer walk, we reach the beautiful baroque Türnich Castle at around 4 p.m., where we have time for coffee and cake in the courtyard café. The path then leads us along the Erft back to the starting point, where we can catch a glimpse of Haus Mödrath just before the parking lot. Of course, you can also find out what this castle has to do with electronic music on this tour.

Countless archive images and aerial photographs from the past are always included, vividly explaining how the landscape was dug up and reshaped.

The trail is a circular route, so that we are back at our starting point (Marienfeld parking lot) at around 18:30.

The total length of the circular route is around 14 km.

Sturdy shoes are recommended and rain gear if the weather is forecast.

Coffee and cake in the courtyard café at Türnich Castle are not included in the price