Weyhe Park Burg Altena

In 1843, King Frederick William IV of Prussia commissioned his royal garden director Maximilian Friedrich Weyhe to design a public park for Altena's Burgberg. Weyhe's aim was to enhance the exposed rock formation using the design principle of English landscape gardens with promenade paths with elegant lines, strategically placed viewpoints and the planting of avenue trees and groups of trees. Large areas of the slope towards the Nette valley were terraced, laid to lawn and supplemented with specific tree and shrub planting. The Lenne side presents a characteristic combination of rugged rocky outcrops, stands of trees and a deliberate path layout that opens up differentiated landscape perspectives. After its completion in 1854, the park underwent a phase of overgrowth. A partial reconstruction was carried out in 2015, making the park accessible again. Since then, informative text panels have explained the historical development of the park. In 2022, infrastructure measures were implemented as part of the state program "Heimatzeugnis", which included the renewal of paths and stairs, the installation of handrails and benches and the construction of a new children's playground.