Hügelpark

The Villa Hügelpark, also known as Hügelpark, is a park designed by Alfred Krupp in Bredeney district of Essen. The English-style park extends around the Villa Hügel at Baldeneysee It borders the Krupp Forest and the city forest. Today, it covers approximately 40 hectares and attracts over 100,000 visitors annually. This unique green space, featuring plants from around the world, is fully fenced and is considered one of Germany's most beautiful parks. From here, there is a unique view of the Baldeneysee. Open year-round with some restrictions, guided tours are available by prior arrangement. Baldeneysee-Ruhr provides all the information and everything you need to know about the Hügelpark.

Alfred Krupp had precise ideas about what the Hügelpark should look like. He wanted a forest full of trees that he would still be alive to see – therefore, he had many fully grown trees planted. The park was a retreat for the Krupp family and also a place for sports and leisure activities; naturally, it also served a representational purpose. Besides all these functions, the park had a very practical use: it provided game for the kitchen, as well as fruit and vegetables from its own greenhouses. Established 150 years ago, the Hügelpark has changed over time. The greenhouses are gone, and there have been some alterations. Nevertheless, many original elements have been preserved: plants and sculptures.

Alfred Krupp achieved his goal in 1883, creating a sprawling park that, however, only accommodated mature trees so that he could still experience the forest he had envisioned. He had native trees planted, including beeches, oaks, lindens, plane trees, chestnuts, firs, and spruces, which were already 50 years old at the time. But he also included exotic species such as sequoias and cedars. Krupp loved rhododendrons for their magnificent and vibrant blossoms. They can be found throughout the entire Villa Hügelpark and Krupp Forest. They bloom particularly magnificently up to twice a year in the famous Rhododendron Gorge west of Villa Hügel. During the spring bloom and sometimes also in the Autumn An absolute must for garden lovers and aesthetes.

Friedrich Alfred Krupp and his wife Margarethe expanded the park in 1888. They had greenhouses and display houses built and planted rare, exotic plants. Of the original 150-hectare hillside area, up to 15 hectares were designated for agriculture. The upper terraced garden of building Hügelpark was given a more ornamental design, and in 1900 two sphinx statues—Egyptian statues with the body of a lion and the head of a man—were added to the park. More precisely, they flank the terrace in front of building Villa Hügel.

The Krupp family also artistically enhanced the park until 1914. For example, the animal sculptor Alfred Hinrich Hußmann created the life-size bronze sculpture "Grazing Horse." This horse is a depiction of Alfred Krupp's favorite horse; he was a true horse enthusiast. Another sculpture, created around 1960, is "Little Seated Woman" by Jean Sprenger. Also later moved here is the "Allegory of Labor," a sculpture by Hugo Lederer, which originally stood in the tower building of the Krupp administration on Altendorfer Straße. The stone sculpture originally stood on the terrace, facing the Villa Hügel and with the Baldeneysee behind it. It has since been relocated. A ship propeller manufactured by the Krupp steel foundry, specifically that of the express steamer Europa, with a considerable diameter of 4 meters and a weight of 13.6 tons, is also on display here.

Today, guided tours of the extensive Hügelpark are available, but most visitors explore the park situated on and around the hilltop independently. Tours are offered with and without an introduction to the history of the Krupp family. There is also a walking tour that explains the unique flora. Those wishing to participate in one of these two-hour tours, limited to a maximum of 20 people, should register in advance. Sturdy footwear, weather-appropriate clothing, and sun protection are recommended. School groups can also visit Hügelpark by prior arrangement and experience natural history firsthand.

The park surrounding Villa Hügel comprises more than 7,000 trees of over 120 different species. Rare shrubs and trees nearly two hundred years old characterize the Villa Hügel park. The Blue Atlas Cedar from Morocco, the Persian Ironwood, the Japanese Japanese Scythe, and the North American Giant Sequoia have all become naturalized here above Baldeneysee. A rhododendron ravine, East Asian tulip magnolias, sculptures, and Krupp artifacts lend Hügelpark a captivating atmosphere, not only during the flowering season.