Fühlinger See is a series of connected lakes in the

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

suburb of

Fühlingen Fühlingen is a village in the northern part of the city of Cologne. It is part of the borough of Chorweiler. Fühlingen is well known for its artificial lake, Fühlinger See. Location The town is located in the north of the city of Cologne. Th ...

in the

German state The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign ''states''. Of the sixteen states, thirteen are so-called area-states ('Flächenländer'); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. The artificial lake covers an area of and is a major attraction. There are

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or riding in British English) Examples of this are: *Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...

routes around the lake, and the horse riding club ''Reiterverein Oranjehof'' is located nearby. Fühlinger See has an international rowing course, and was the venue for the

1998 World Rowing Championships The 1998 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 9 to 18 September 1998 in Cologne, Germany. The World Rowing Championships are organized by World Rowing Federation, FISA, back then International Rowing Fede ...

. Men competed in 14 categories for world titles, whilst there were 10 events for women. Germany came out on top of the medal table. The lake was created from 1912 when aggregate was excavated; according to the German Wikipedia entry, this was for what are now

Bundesautobahn 4 is an autobahn in two discontinuous segments that crosses Germany in a west–east direction. The western segment has a length of , while the part in the east is long. Route The western A 4 starts north-west of Aachen, where the A ...

(

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

–Cologne) and

Bundesautobahn 3 is an autobahn in Germany running from the Germany-Netherlands border near Wesel in the northwest to the Germany-Austria border near Passau. Major cities along its total length of 778 km (483 mi) include Oberhausen, Duisburg, Düsse ...

(

Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, its c ...

–Cologne), but according to a newspaper article from 1935, the fill was used for work on the

railway line Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

from

to Cologne (which was indeed widened to four tracks from 1912 onwards). With the river

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

nearby, the excavated hole quickly filled with water. From the 1930s onwards, people came to the lake to swim while excavations were still going on. In 1967, the lakes were officially turned into a recreation area. A total of seven lakes are interconnected, all grouped around a central rowing facility. The various lakes have different purposes: one is for diving, one for fishing, one for windsurfing, three for boating, and one for rowing. Swimming is only allowed at the private "Blackfoot Beach" area in sea nr. 5 (with entry fee), because the city of cologne fears law suits in case of accidents. Since there are structures built in the lakes the administration fears people might think swimming would be under supervision.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuhlinger See Lakes of North Rhine-Westphalia Rowing venues Sports venues in Cologne