Drachenfelsbahn

A monument from the history of technology

Right at the foot of the Drachenfels mountain there is the valley station of Germany’s oldest rack railway, the so-called Drachenfelsbahn. On its track of about 1.5 kilometres up to the lookout terrace right underneath the top of the Drachenfels it gets over a difference in altitude of 220 metres with a gradient of up to 20 per cent.


The ride with Germany’s oldest rack railway to the most famous lookout point of the Siebengebirge – the Drachenfels high over the Rhine Valley at Königswinter – offers an “excursion with farsightedness”. At the middle station half the way up to the top there are the Castle Drachenburg and its “Museum for the History of Preservation of Nature” located in the fore-fortress.
The Drachenfelsbahn has been operated since 1883 now. With the help of a monumental locomotive, which is displayed quite close to the valley station, one can imagine how a steam locomotive was operated in former times.
On its track of about 1.5 kilometres the Drachenfelsbahn gets over a difference in altitude of 220 metres. In its 100-years-old history it transported more than 30 million people. It is also possible to get up the mountain on the back of little monkeys, with a hackney or on foot.

Our tip: with the Bonn Regio WelcomeCard you get a 20 % reduction on your ride with the Drachenfelsbahn !