Oberpleis brings together an inclusive garden, historic churches and a variety of themed hikes. This gives you several specific options to focus on when planning your trip: church architecture and art, a garden for people, animals and plants, or trails featuring chapels, orchards, valleys and forests.
The Provost’s Garden and Church Art
Behind St. Pankratius Church in Königswinter-Oberpleis, the inclusive Provost’s Garden covers around 3,000 square metres. It is a “garden for everyone”, for plants, animals and people. It adds a dedicated garden focus to the area’s religious and cultural themes.
The Provost Church of St. Pankratius is a three-aisled Romanesque pillar basilica with a transept, semicircular apse and hall crypt. It was built as a provost church between 1100 and 1120. Inside the church are, among other works, the Adoration of the Magi relief from the 12th century on the high altar, a decorative floor featuring a depiction of the cosmos from 1220/30, a Pietà from the 15th century and a Felicitas shrine created in 1961 in the crypt. The relief is regarded as an outstanding work of 12th-century Rhenish sculpture. The artworks thus span the period from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.
The Protestant Church of Oberpleis offers a different architectural accent: it is a listed historic building and a Type D Bartning emergency church, largely preserved in its original condition. Free guided tours may be available by prior appointment. If you would like to plan a tour, arrange a time in advance.
Chapels, Orchards and Forest Trails
The KapellenSchleife – Villages, Chapels & Fruit Growing visits five of the twelve chapels on the Chapel Hike. After leaving Oberpleis, it passes orchards. Stage 13 of the Bergischer Weg, by contrast, includes trails through secluded valleys and forests. The two hiking themes can therefore be distinguished according to your interests: the KapellenSchleife focuses on chapels and fruit growing, while Stage 13 features valleys and forest trails.
A marked 2.5 km access trail is also designated for the Bergischer Weg. It leads from the end of the stage to Königswinter-Oberpleis station. This clearly identifies the connection between the stage endpoint and the station, without making any claims about timetables or train services.
Königswinter as a Wider Travel Destination
If you also consider Königswinter as a wider travel destination alongside Oberpleis, you’ll find other distinct themes there. The Petersberg Visitor Centre presents the history of the site across five exhibition areas; one part of the exhibition is devoted to the nature of Petersberg. The Rheinsteig runs directly past the Petersberg Visitor Centre. The exhibition and access are barrier-free. If specific access needs are important to your plans, confirm the details before your trip.
The Brückenhof Museum is also part of the wider Königswinter destination. Its permanent exhibition includes an early 20th-century kitchen, a fully equipped shoemaker’s workshop and the “Weilberg” model railway layout, depicting the Heisterbacher Talbahn. The narrow-gauge railway ran through the Heisterbach Valley from 1889 to 1950.
Other attractions in Königswinter include the Drachenfels Railway, Germany’s oldest cog railway, which connects Königswinter’s Old Town with the ruins on Drachenfels, and Drachenburg Castle. The castle was built between 1882 and 1884; its furnished rooms let visitors experience the domestic culture of the late 19th century.
When looking for a holiday apartment, it’s worth first deciding what you want to focus on: would you like your stay to centre mainly on Oberpleis’s churches, the garden and hiking themes, or would you also like to consider other attractions in the wider Königswinter destination? This decision helps you tailor your search area to the themes that really matter to you.
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