North Tower - Schloss Drachenburg

The Icon of
Rhine Romanticism:
the Drachenfels
From around 1800, the Drachenfels mountain with its ruined castle at the top was considered
the epitome of Rhine Romanticism. So when, from 1820 onwards, quarrying operations
started up there with the aim of building Cologne Cathedral again, citizens from Bonn and
Cologne protested at once. Soon the protection of the mountain (“Dragon‘s Rock”) became a
national issue.
Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III intervened. In 1836, Prussia placed the mountain peak
under protection, which is why the Drachenfels now rates as the birthplace of the nature
conservation movement in Germany. People in the vicinity and from elsewhere have committed
themselves to the protection of nature and landscape for nearly two hundred years now.
If you would like to fi nd out more about nature conservation in the Siebengebirge area as a
whole and about the Drachenfels in particular, then please visit the exhibition entitled “Nature
Conservation and Its History” at the museum in the Vorburg.
Christian Georg Schütz:
Drachenfels und Rolandseck, 1822
© Siebengebirgsmuseum Königswinter/
Heimatverein Siebengebirge
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