Pulheim
Accommodation in Pulheim
Pulheim tells its story not only through its buildings: in Stommeln, historic sites meet sound art, while green spaces and forests make nature excursions possible. Haus Orr and the landscape park offer another cultural and historical perspective. For families who want to include history, art and nature in their trip, the town offers a range of themes to explore together when planning their discoveries.
Abteikirche St. Nikolaus der Abtei Brauweiler
Photo: Raimond Spekking via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Windmill, synagogue and sound art in Stommeln
A distinctive landmark is the four-sailed brick tower windmill in Pulheim-Stommeln. It is documented from the 16th century and was built between 1860 and 1864. Its sails have been preserved; the mill is also classified as an archaeological monument. Adjoining it is a Jewish cemetery dating from before 1861—a separate historic site right next to the mill.
The Stommeln Synagogue was built in 1882 and is now the only surviving Jewish house of worship in the Rhein-Erft district. Max Neuhaus’s permanent sound installation “Time Piece Stommeln” is located at the synagogue. Its time scale is based on Jewish religious law and runs from sunrise to sunset. The sound signal rings thirteen times a day, with the intervals changing according to the position of the sun. In 1991, the City of Pulheim also initiated the “Stommeln Synagogue” art project at the synagogue, a series of exhibitions by internationally renowned artists.
Christina von Stommeln is also commemorated at several places in the town: at her tomb beside the old St Martin’s Church, at the Christina Chapel and Christina School, and at the retirement home by Christinapark. A large monument to Christina by Olaf Höhn has stood on the Stommeln village green since 1999. The Stommeln Local History Museum also offers a walk following in the footsteps of Blessed Christina von Stommeln.
Haus Orr and the landscape park
Haus Orr is set in a large landscape park on the Rhine, on an artificially created hill. The villa was built in 1838, probably by Ernst Friedrich Zwirner, in the Neo-Gothic style, based on a design by Schinkel for Cologne banker Peter Daniel Koch. The park was continuously expanded until 1890 and is listed as a garden monument in its own right in the City of Pulheim’s monument register. The villa and the gardens each offer their own insight into the history of the site’s design.
The Orr manor estate, by contrast, is a cultural and natural monument: thanks to the activities of its support association, it is open to all interested visitors. The cultural calendar announces upcoming concerts, readings, a spring festival and other cultural events for different age groups. If you would like to include a visit in your trip, you can plan around these announced dates.
A side trip to Brauweiler
The abbey in Brauweiler also offers historical insights. Its permanent exhibition, “1,000 Years of Brauweiler Abbey: A Place of Rhineland History,” explores the abbey’s history of more than a thousand years and the changes it has undergone. Selected original objects, written sources, photographs and audiovisual media form the basis of the exhibition. Daily public tours and exclusive tours for private groups are also available. This means you can choose between a multimedia exhibition and a guided tour for your trip.
Nature and getting to Pulheim
Green spaces such as Nordpark and the adjoining forests around Pulheim invite you to enjoy nature excursions.
For travel, Pulheim is on the Cologne–Mönchengladbach railway line and close to Cologne/Bonn and Düsseldorf airports. This information can help you take your preferred way of travelling into account; it does not specify particular connections or journey times. Whether your wish list focuses mainly on historic sites, sound art, an exhibition or nature excursions, Pulheim combines a range of discovery themes with a railway line and proximity to two airports.
For the wider travel overview: Rhein-Erft district.
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