The Elbauenpark is a family and

leisure park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

in Magdeburg, capital city of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The park area is about 100 hectares and consists of the parts ''Kleiner Anger'' and ''Großer Anger''. The park areas are connected with a pedestrian bridge over the ''Herrenkrugstraße''. The park has a total of four combined entrances and exits as well as three exits. According to the

Stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

magazine, the Elbauenpark is the best leisure attraction in Saxony-Anhalt.Beste Freizeitattraktion in Sachsen-Anhalt
Magazin Stern in der Ausgabe 27/2013 im Freizeitatlas Deutschland

History

It was created on the occasion of the

Bundesgartenschau The Bundesgartenschau BUGA is a biennial federal horticulture show in Germany. It also covers topics like landscaping. Taking place in different cities, the location changes in a two-year cycle. BUGA cities *1951 – Hannover *1953 – Hamburg ...

1999 in Magdeburg on the ''Cracauer Anger''. In the north-eastern part of Magdeburg there used to be Wehrmacht

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

and shooting ramparts built in the 1930s. After the Second World War, the barracks were used by the western Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. A huge rubbish dump was created from the ruins of the war's destruction. Before the construction of the park all

explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...

ordnance Ordnance may refer to: Military and defense *Materiel in military logistics, including weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and maintenance tools and equipment. **The military branch responsible for supplying and developing these items, e.g., the Unite ...

, projectiles and countless rubble from the war had to be removed in order to realize this project. In just a few years, a park was created on this former field of war debris, attracting numerous visitors. From 1999 to the 2014 season, the ''Panoramabahn'', an elevated monorail, ran 3 km through the park. It was dismantled at the beginning of 2015.

Park attractions

*The Millennium Tower: 6000 years of human history in a unique exhibition *The Play and Project House: An open house for children aged 0–14. Here children can simply do what they want but also take part in projects, paint or do handicrafts. The special feature of the house is on the one hand the concept, which contains participation as the main criterion and the fact that this house was planned to a large extent by the children. *The theme gardens: 14 gardens, designed according to various themes. *The lake stage: open-air stage with 1,600 seats for events *The summer toboggan run: a 400-metre-long sheet metal toboggan run *The ramparts: numerous climbing and recreational opportunities for families and children *The butterfly house: 200 exotic

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

in one house *The sports area: playing fields for

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, volleyball,

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

and basketball. *The climbing tower: climbing the 25-metre-high ''Großer Angerfelsen'' *The climbing park: climbing on 55 elements and 2 cable cars in the high ropes course *The

maze A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lea ...

: a labyrinth of

hedge A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate a road from adjoini ...

s and

trellis Trellis may refer to: Structures * Trellis (architecture), an architectural structure often used to support plants (especially vineyards) * Trellis drainage pattern, a drainage system Technology * Trellis (graph), a special kind of graph used ...

es In addition there are various garden arts, e.g. rose gardens, bamboo grove, shrub garden, European garden, paradisiacal gardens or renewable resources; a skater course, the Kneipp garden, a frisbee golf course, a fitness course with extensive explanations, a water playground, a bee house, the school project "Green Path" and the God's Garden House, a pavilion which was used as an

ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

meeting centre during the

. There are also several bistros, a restaurant in the Millennium Tower and a beer garden. Throughout the season (April to October), numerous events take place in the park; in 2016 and 2017, the VOX television programme ''Grill den Henssler'' was a guest on the lake stage for three editions each. The park is part of the

Saxony-Anhalt Garden Dreams The Garden Dreams Project (german: Projekt Gartenträume) is a conservation and tourism network concerned with rediscovering the cultural heritage of gardens in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Historical parks which had been, to an extent, for ...

References

External links

* {{coord, 52.137, 11.670, type:landmark_region:DE_dim:2000, display=title Amusement parks in Germany Buildings and structures in Magdeburg Tourist attractions in Magdeburg