Ulmen Highlights

Stop right here. You're standing face-to-face with a moment frozen in time—11,000 years ago, to be precise. This isn't just any rock wall. This is the geological equivalent of a crime scene photograph, capturing the exact instant when the earth beneath your feet exploded with unimaginable force. Run your eyes along the…

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Here in the Brandenbusch forest, we're standing near one of the darkest chapters in Ulmen's history. From the sixteenth century onward, this area served as an execution site where accused witches, thieves, and murderers were burned at the stake. The spring you see here became known as the Witches' Well, though its conn…

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Look up at these weathered stone walls clinging to the volcanic outcrop above the maar. Around 1074, medieval builders chose this spot for a reason—the same volcanic eruption that created the lake below left behind this defensible ridge of hardened basalt. For six centuries, two knightly families lived here completely …

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Photo: Wikipedia, Wikipedia (check source for specific license)Wikipedia DE (Ulmener Maar)

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Here it is—the perfect circle that holds the answer to everything we've been tracing. Ten thousand years ago, magma rising through the earth met groundwater right here, and the resulting steam explosion blew a crater 37 meters deep into the bedrock. What you're looking at is the blast zone itself, now filled with water…

Here at the edge of the maar, you're looking at a small fountain crowned by a whimsical bronze figure—the Maarspautzer, Ulmen's own water sprite. According to local legend, this mischievous creature lives in the maar's depths, occasionally surfacing to play tricks on unsuspecting visitors or splash water at those who v…

From this viewing platform, you're standing where Ulmen once tapped directly into its volcanic inheritance. The old pump station here wasn't just infrastructure—it was engineering that recognized what geologists now confirm: the Ulmener Maar's unique volcanic basin creates a natural reservoir, its impermeable rock laye…

Ulmenermaar01 | 🔗 wikipedia.org

Photo: Wikipedia, Wikipedia (check source for specific license)Wikipedia DE (Ulmener Maar)

Now we complete our journey by entering the volcanic system itself, walking through tunnels carved into the same tuff stone we examined at our first stop. The Ulmener Maar-Stollen, opened to visitors in 2023, is a 120-meter passage that's been carrying water between the two maars since medieval times—originally built t…