The TERRA.vita Nature Park () is located in the German states of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

and

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 ...

and is divided into northern and southern areas. The park is also known as the ''Osnabrück Land Nature Park'' and sometimes by its old name of ''North Teutoburg Forest-Wiehen Hills Nature Park''. The woodlands of the Nature Park comprise about 70% of its total area.

The Nature Park

Northern area

The northern part of the nature park begins in the

Emsland Landkreis Emsland () is a districts of Germany, district in Lower Saxony, Germany named after the river Ems (river), Ems. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Leer (district), Leer, Cloppenburg (district), Cloppenbur ...

near

Herzlake Herzlake is a municipality in the Emsland district, in Lower Saxony, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to ...

and extends from there over the southern fringes of the Oldenburger Münsterland and Osnabrück Land in a southeast direction over the

Ankum Heights The Ankum Heights (), also called the Fürstenau Hills (''Fürstenauer Berge''), are a ridge of hills up to 140 m high in the western part of the state of Lower Saxony on the North German Plain. Geography The densely forested Ankum Heig ...

Bramsche Bramsche is a town in the district of Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, Germany. It is about north of Osnabrück, at . Population is 30,952 (2018). Subdivisions In 1971/72 12 previously independent municipalities were included into the town. *Achmer *B ...

. From there it widens out north of

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; ; archaic English: ''Osnaburg'') is a city in Lower Saxony in western Germany. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population of 168 ...

over the

Wiehen Hills The Wiehen HillsElkins, T.H. (1972). ''Germany'' (3rd ed.). London: Chatto & Windus, 1972. . (, , also locally, just ''Wiehen'') are a hill range in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony in Germany. The hills run from west to east like a long f ...

eastwards and then over the

gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...

Porta Westfalica Porta Westfalica () is a town in the district of Minden-Lübbecke, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The name "''Porta Westfalica''" is Latin and means "gate to Westphalia". Coming from the north, the gorge is the entry to the region of West ...

, continuing further to the east as far as the

Bückeburg Bückeburg (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Bückeborg'') is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, on the border with North Rhine Westphalia. It is located in the district of Schaumburg close to the northern slopes of the Weserbergland ridge. Bückeburg ha ...

, which lies east of the

Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...

and north of the

Wesergebirge The Weser Hills (''Wesergebirge''), also known in German as the ''Weserkette'' ("Weser Chain"),"Ein anderes Bild als die Bergländer der oberen Weser bieten die ''Weserkette'', das ''Wiehengebirge'' und der ''Teutoburger Wald'', see Christian Deg ...

; the park area thus extends into the northwestern part of the Wesergebirge.

Southern area

The southern part of the nature park lies in the northern

Teutoburg Forest The Teutoburg Forest ( ; ) is a range of low, forested hills in the German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. Until the 17th century, the official name of the hill ridge was Osning. It was first renamed the ''Teutoburg Forest'' ...

. It starts east of

Hörstel is a town in the district of Steinfurt, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated near the junction of the Mittellandkanal and the Dortmund-Ems Canal, approx. 10 km east of Rheine. Parts of Hörstel are Riesenbeck, Dreierwalde ...

and runs through the Tecklenburg Land and

Bad Iburg Bad Iburg (; Westphalian: ''Bad Ibig'') is a spa town in the district of Osnabrück, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Teutoburg Forest, 16 km south of Osnabrück, and the Hermannsweg long-distance hiking trail passes throug ...

in a southeasterly direction to

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region () of Detmold (region), Detmold and the L ...

Hill ranges

Neighbouring nature park

East of Bückeburg it meets the Weser Uplands Schaumburg-Hamelin Nature Park. Southeast of

it runs into the Teutoburg Forest / Eggegebirge Nature Park.

References

External links

North Teutoburg Forest, Wiehen Hills and Osnabrück Land Nature Park
(TERRA.vita) {{Authority control Osnabrück (district) Minden Teutoburg Forest Nature parks in North Rhine-Westphalia Nature parks in Lower Saxony Lübbecke Wiehen Hills Bissendorf Preußisch Oldendorf