Drei-Türme-Weg Witten

Witten is traversed by the Ruhr and lies with its southern part in the Bergisches Land and with its northern part in the Ruhr area. Witten is considered the nucleus of mining in the Ruhr area. The first hard coal excavations in the Ruhr are said to have taken place around the year 1000, and the first documented coal finds date back to 1552.

At that time, the von Witten family who built the Berge zu Witten Castle, or Haus Witten for short, had already died out around 1470. Haus Witten is located in the city park of Witten and here in the city park the three tower hike begins, which is marked with a white triangle on a black background by the Sauerland Mountain Association (SGV).

From the city park, take Parkstrasse to the Hohenstein recreation area. Right at the beginning, the Drei-Turme-Weg passes the Hammerteich, remnant of an early industrial forge and today the home port of many ship model builders.

Behind the children's playground, the Drei-Turme-Weg reaches its first destination: the Berger monument. The 21m high lookout tower was built in 1902-04 from Ruhr sandstone a good 130m above the Ruhr on a cliff edge of the Ardey Mountains and commemorates the industrialist and politician Louis Constans Berger, son of the founder of the cast steel works, which later merged with other companies to form the Deutsche Edelstahlwerke became.

Past a small wildlife park with a petting zoo, the Drei-Türme-Weg leads eastwards and then back towards the Ruhr Valley around the Wartenberg (246m) into the Kermelbach nature reserve. At the end of the nature reserve, tower number 2 is waiting for us, the Kermelberg water tower. The 30m high water tower was built in the 1950s and has an outside platform, which, however, can only be opened after prior agreement with the Witten municipal works.

The Drei-Türme-Weg leads north through the beechwood forest into the valley of the Borbach, a 7 km long tributary of the Ruhr. The Borbach used to feed three small ponds in the beech wood, but these have been drained. Then we continue to follow the Borbach until we reach the Hohenstein recreation area again.

Here above the Hohenstein is the third tower on the way, the 30m high Helenenturm. It was built in 1858 by Eduard Strohn as a private monument and has been owned by the city of Witten since 1909. From the Helenenturm you have a view over large parts of the city and, in good weather conditions, as far as Bochum and Dortmund. However, the Helenenturm has been closed for some time and is only opened on special occasions.