The best walks and hikes in Naturschutzgebiet Latumer Bruch

If someone is in the Krefeld area, they should definitely make a detour to Linn. Very beautiful and, above all, old, well-preserved buildings, you can't see enough of them. The various restaurants are also not to be scorned. A walk around the castle without a bike should also be done. Pure peace.

The cross is there, but the bench is missing.

When I saw the castle tower from afar, I suspected that I was about to see something special on the Lower Rhine. As I came closer, I saw a white swan gliding in the waters around the castle, surrounded by bleating black coots. Through the entrance to BURG LINN IN KREFELD, I then realized that I was in a MUSEUM that offers a journey through the last 10,000 years of human history on the Lower Rhine - starting with mammoth hunters in the Ice Age, through the Roman era and the Middle Ages with its knights, to the self-confident bourgeoisie and the nobility of the modern era. Here, history is presented in a lively and exciting way! Special treasures are the finds from Germany's largest Roman burial ground, the princely grave of the Frank Arpvar with his gold and precious stone-set weapons, and the UNESCO World Heritage Lower Germanic Limes. The museum consists of the three houses of Linn Castle and forms a wonderful architectural backdrop: as an archaeological museum, as a medieval castle and as a baroque hunting lodge. The castle is surrounded by extensive parkland. Together with the historic old town of Krefeld-Linn, the museum offers a good, attractive all-round program for day trips or weekend trips on foot or by bike.

The Latumer Bruch, also known locally as Lohbruch, is a fen forest and wetland in the southeast of the city of Krefeld, which forms the second largest nature reserve in the city under the same name. The Bruch is located on the southern edge of the Krefeld district of Linn. To the northwest, the area borders on Oppum, to the northeast on Gellep-Stratum, and to the southwest and southeast are the Meerbusch districts of Ossum-Bösinghoven and Lank-Latum. The Latumer Bruch is named after Haus Latum, an estate on the outskirts of Lank-Latum, to whose lands the area historically belonged. Source and link to the full article: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latumer_Bruch (Small side note: Wikipedia writes "Der Latumer Bruch", but the correct term is "Das Latumer Bruch", a classic mistake that is also known from Hülser Bruch...)

A small note on the name of the highlight and its spelling: It is the Greiffenhorstpark, with 2 f, named after Cornelius de Greiff, on whose behalf it was designed and realized around 1840 by the master gardener and Düsseldorf court garden director Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greiffenhorstpark

I love the park around Linn Castle and Greifenhorst Park. Always nice for a short walk (also suitable for wheelchairs) or as a starting point for a hike through the Latumer Bruch nature reserve or through the fields towards Düsseldorf.

The Greiffenhorst house, built between 1838 and 1843, is attributed to the architect Otto von Gloeden. In 1929 it was converted into a café by the architect Prof. Caspar Lennartz. Partially damaged in World War II, the building eked out an existence for many years as a ruin with bricked-up doors and windows. After years of demands for demolition, it was decided to save the building, which is one of the most exposed examples of this type in the Rhineland. Between 1972 and 1974 the building received a comprehensive restoration by the building authority. The three-story brick plastered building has the shape of an octagon, which is expanded on four opposite sides by two-story extensions with approximately square floor plans. Both the octagonal three-story building and its two-story extensions have flat, walkable roofs surrounded by cast-iron latticework. The latticework is supported by plastic console cornices, which are decorated with wreath motifs between the consoles. Iron vases stand on the corner posts. Each octagonal section and each porch wall is pierced by a rectangular pilaster-framed central window. The entrances on the north-south axis of the building have paneled double doors. Typologically, the building is a central building, which means that, in contrast to longhouse buildings, all parts of the building are related to the center of the building. Haus Greiffenhorst follows the tradition of classicist hunting and pleasure buildings from the 18th century. Source: Architecture guide Krefeld by Hans-Peter Schwanke, published by the city director of the city of Krefeld 1996, ISBN 3-9804181-4-6; Page 314, "114. Haus Greiffenhorst"

The Burgmannshof Issumer Tower forms the southeastern counterpart to the Bakenhof on the northeast side of the city. As a castle fiefdom (Burgmannshof), the farm was awarded by the city's founder, the Count of Kleve, to a nobleman, probably the Knight of Issum. However, no document about this process has survived. The first surviving document concerns the enfeoffment of Simon von Aldenbrüggen by the Elector of Cologne in 1430. One of the more important feudal holders was Isenbrand von Preuth, the owner of Haus Kaldenhausen, who took over the tower in 1609 together with his wife Christine von Eyll. Source and link: https://www.kr-linn.de/issumer-turm/