Botanischer Garten Rombergpark (Rombergpark Botanical Garden), or informally Rombergpark, is an extensive municipal

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

and

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

, Germany. With its total area of 68 hectares the Rombergpark is one of the largest botanical gardens in the world. It is always freely open.

History

The garden was established in 1822 as the Romberg family's

English landscape park The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

around their mooted castle Brünninghausen (). It followed remodeling the house from 1817 in

Classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

style, designed by . The owner, and his family commissioned a new garden concept around the house, carried out between 1817 and 1824 in

English landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

style. It was designed, beginning in 1818, by Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe, who was court gardener in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

. He had worked with Reinking before. The design is extant, held by the Abteilung Westfalen of the Landesarchiv NRW.Landesarchiv NRW, Abt. Westfalen, Kartensammlung A, Nr. 19932, Brünninghausen (Dortmund), Schloß, Schloßanlage mit Park, Anf. 19. Jh., 20 rh. Ruten = 34,25 cm 46 x 53, kol. Zeichnung (Weyhe), Romberg Nr. 30
Digitalisat
/ref> Weyhe visited the site twice per year to inspect the work, to determine trails and the lake with an island, a bridge and the Bastei which remains. The leading gardener was , who later became director of the municipal gardens in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

. The building within the park were designed by architect , who continued Reinking's after his death in 1819, and te Stroet. The property is located in the south of the city, adjacent to the zoo. In 1926, it was acquired by the city, which transferred its botanical garden from close to the inner city to the larger property. With city planning director Richard Nose, it was enhanced by a small

herb garden The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...

. The park was badly damaged by bombing in 1944 during World War II, and the castle was destroyed. In 1945, shortly before the end of the war, officers of the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

murdered almost 300 people in the Rombergpark and the nearby forest . The victims were mostly forced labourers and prisoners of war from several European countries, as well as previously imprisoned opponents of the Nazi regime. These events are commemorated today at the

Mahnmal Bittermark The Mahnmal Bittermark is a memorial place in , a borough in the city of Dortmund, Germany.

, and by a memorial plaque at the park, which is planted with white roses, alluding to the Weiße Rose resistance to the Nazis. Beginning in 1950, director Gerd Krüssmann rebuilt the park as an

, adding some 4500 species. Four

greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...

s were built in 1958, with an integrated cafe. A garden of

medicinal plant Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including Plant defense against her ...

s was added in 1985. Today the garden contains a historic English landscape park with monuments, an arboretum containing thousands of species of woody plants, including some of the largest trees of some species in

, a terrace with

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm trees ...

s, and four greenhouses with a total area of 1000 m² for

cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...

and

succulent In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except t ...

tropical plant Tropical vegetation is any vegetation in tropical latitudes. Plant life that occurs in climates that are warm year-round is in general more biologically diverse that in other latitudes. Some tropical areas may receive abundant rain the whole ye ...

s, and camellias,

jasmine Jasmine ( taxonomic name: ''Jasminum''; , ) is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family (Oleaceae). It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Jasmines are widely cultiva ...

, and lemons. A large lake is home for fish, turtles and water fowl. A smaller lake is surrounded by water cypress. The lakes are fed by "red" creeks rich in iron minerals. A linden alley was planted in 1888. The blooming of

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...

s is an annual attraction. The greenhouses with the cafe, and the park as a whole are listed monuments.

Gallery

Lindenallee im Rombergpark 2014b.jpg, Linden alley in 2014 Dortmund - Rombergpark - Rombergsiepen 09 ies.jpg, Rombergsiepen, one of the red creeks Dortmund rombergpark.JPG, Water cypress at the small lake Rombergpark-DSCN6685.JPG, Trees in the swamp garden

References

External links

Freunde und Förderer des Botanischen Gartens Rombergpark
(in German) 2021

tripadvisor.com 2021 {{portal bar, Garden, Germany Rombergpark, Botanischer Garten Rombergpark, Botanischer Garten Rombergpark, Botanischer Garten