Rheinland Nature Park (''Naturpark Rheinland'') is a nature park in

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 ...

, situated between Bergheim,

Kerpen Kerpen (; Ripuarian: ''Kerpe'') is the most populated town in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany). It is located about 20 kilometres southwest from Cologne. As of 2023, Kerpen has a total population of 67,627. Division of ...

Erftstadt Erftstadt () is a town located about 20 km south-west of Cologne in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name of the town derives from the river that flows through it, the Erft. The neighbouring towns are Brüh ...

Euskirchen Euskirchen (; Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Öskerche'') is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Euskirchen (district), district Euskirchen. While Euskirchen resembles a modern shopping town, it also has a history dating ba ...

Königswinter Königswinter (; ; Low Franconian: ) is a town and summer resort in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Königswinter is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite Bad Godesberg, at the foot of the ...

, Bornheim,

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

, Brühl,

Hürth Hürth () is a town in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Hürth shares borders with the city of Cologne and is about 6 km to the southwest of Cologne city centre, at the northeastern slope of the natural preserve Natur ...

Frechen Frechen (; Ripuarian: ''Frechem'') is a town in the Rhein-Erft District, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Frechen was first mentioned in 877. It is situated at the western Cologne city border. It is the site of the 1257 Battle of Frechen betwee ...

and

Pulheim Pulheim (; Ripuarian: ''Pullem'') is a town in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Since the 1920s, a large substation of the ''Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk AG'' ( RWE) is located at Pulheim. It is the end of t ...

. It covers an area of about 880 km².

Ville-Seen-Platte

Roughly translated, this would be the 'plateau of lakes in the Ville'. In the vicinity of Erftstadt, Brühl and Hürth many small and large lakes have been created due to

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

. The reforestation of the area was begun in 1920 by planting

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

and

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere, where they are found in lowland forests in the high la ...

trees. Today, there are about forty lakes that have sprung from the mining operations. List of lakes on the ''Villen-Seen-Platte'': * Concordia See * Köttinger See * Zieselsmaarsee * Villesee * Dinnendahlsee * Liblarer See * Forellenteich * Obersee * Mittelsee * Untersee * Bleibtreusee * Silbersee * Heider Bergsee * Gruhlsee * Margarethenweier * Schluchtsee * Franziskussee * Karauschenweiher * Teich * Donatussee * Zwillingssee * Entenweiher * Villenhofer Maar * Pfingsdorfer See * Fasanenweiher * Forsthausweiher * Lucretiasee * Berggeistsee * Gotteshülfeteich * Otto-Maiglersee * Waldsee * Klärteich

External links

Naturpark Rheinland
(German) Nature parks in North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland {{Europe-protected-area-stub