Klettenbergpark, Cologne

The Klettenbergpark in the Cologne district of Klettenberg is an elevated park of about 6 hectares, laid out as a natural garden. It was planned since 1903 and laid out by the Cologne garden director Fritz Encke from 1905 to 1907 on the site of a 10 m deep gravel pit on Luxemburger Straße.

The measure, carried out in the course of suburban greening at the beginning of the 20th century, served at the same time to upgrade the Klettenberg district, which was under construction and was characterized by a strong greening through.

The park was deliberately designed by Encke as a natural garden. Here, the site-bound visitor should become acquainted with many different landscape elements and vegetation images of the Rhenish homeland, which are arranged here side by side in an apparently natural way. Heath landscape, the lake with shore vegetation, forest sections, a flower meadow crossed by a brook and a rocky brook section with a subsequent steep drop are individual elements. The Rhenish basalt quarry and the slate quarry, located in a kind of hollow way, represent geological peculiarities and characterize the didactic teaching program. Due to its asymmetrical layout and its generously laid out network of circular paths, the park clearly differs from the small-scale and ornamentally laid out formations in the Gründerzeit park. The only exception is the rose garden located in the leg of Nassestraße and Siebengebirgsallee.