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Picturesque Beyenburg
An old monastery, a quiet lake, sparse deciduous woods and trim half-timbered houses: When you visit the village Beyenburg in the east of Wuppertal, is suddenly far away from a metropolis.
Along the Beyenburger Freiheit grey-slated Bergish houses with the typical green window shutters and the brilliant-white mullioned windows line up. Crosses are important in Beyenburg – and not only in the monastery and church further up at the Beyenburger Freiheit. Directly at the house no. 18 stands a large wooden cross, erected as a thank you for a successful local mission in 1760: Beyenburg has been a Catholic enclave in a Protestant environment for a long time. According to the legend Beyenburg will be safe from fire as long as this cross is being honoured.
The probably prettiest front door in the village – and of those Beyenburg has a lot offer – can be seen just next door: The specimen of house no. 20 at the Beyenburger Freiheit stems from the early 19th-century, the swinging crowning from the rococo. Impressive and graceful at the same time: the church St. Maria Magdalena a bit further up along the Beyenburger Freiheit, can't be overlooked. The church (start of construction was in 1497) built from sandstone has been, just like the monastery (start of construction in 1485), carefully restored in the past decades and is one of the prettiest examples of late-Gothic architecture in the region today. Today the small atmospheric courtyard doesn't show how eventful the history of church and monastery was – with devastating fires (1615 and 1678) and times when monastery life was blooming – also financially, as the opulent Baroque high altar and the organ (1693) prove still today. Today believers, tourists and art interested people make a pilgrimage equally to church and monastery – not only on Ascension Day when Beyenburg invites to the traditional pilgrimage and fun fair.
Via a staircase opposite the church we reach Beyenburg's 'Lower Town'. House no. 24 Am Obergraben is a great half-timbered building from the 17th-century. In the street Am Untergraben, just on the right at no. 11, one can again admire an especially pretty door – a so-called cassette filled door from the 19th-century. There is a lot to be admired at Am Untergraben: lovingly cared for front gardens, tiny outbuildings and half-timbered house just like from a picture-book. For centuries such half-timbered houses were standard buildings in Beyenburg: Wood and quarry stone were less expensive and more easy to come by than massive boulders. All the more the houses no. 17, 20 and 22 in the Beyenburger Furt ins attract the eye. Ironically, it was a stone house, which founded Beyenburg: The rise south-west of the Wupper bow is called 'Steinhaus' still today. Around 1200 a large castle-like house made of hewn stone stood there – which was so rare that it became name-giver for the little village, which developed around the house. While strolling through the Beyenburger Furt do look at the front doors again it is well worth it.
The no. 6 and 8 present themselves as twins. If you cross the Wupper over the little bridge coming from the Beyenburger Furt and walk along the lake you will have a wonderful view onto the village, monastery and church and towards east Beyenburg's own hill the 309 metres high Bilstein. Along the Beyenburger reservoir there is a lot to be discovered: water ouzels, grey herons and seagulls, dragon boats and canoes. But the path along the Beyenburger Furt towards east is well worth it: The Wupper meanders in picturesque loops below the Bilstein and is ideal for short walks or expansive country outings with picnic at the river bank.
