Little Venice in the Old town
The Ellerbach district – a wallflower
Little Venice in Bad Kreuznach
Strolling along the footbridge on the way from the Nahe to the Eiermarkt, visitors pause in amazement. The footbridge spans a small river: the Ellerbach. The mouth of the Ellerbach where it flows into the Nahe is visible. This is where the stream ends its 27.2 km journey, which began at an altitude of over 500 meters in the Soonwald forest. Upstream, a row of buildings obstructs the view. This is a place steeped in history. The rows of houses, whose picturesque rear facades—mostly beautifully renovated and painted in bright colors—line the stream, stand on both sides of the old city wall. The eastern side was the wall of the castle district, which stretched from Kauzenburg Castle to the mouth of the Ellerbach. A small tower – later topped with a Baroque dome – known as “die Peffermiehl” still marks the point where the long walls of the castle met. On the western side was the city wall, which enclosed the citizens, craftsmen, merchants, and farmers. Both districts benefited from the Ellerbach, which for a long time served primarily as a sewer, especially for the tanners. If the citizens wanted to enter the castle district, they had to go through the gate. It was forbidden to build on the city wall, which was constructed around 1300. The fact that people did so anyway and ignored demolition orders was because these inner-city walls were no longer needed for protection and the city was suffering from a lack of space around 1500 due to population growth. For this reason, the bridge on which the building block mentioned at the beginning stands was also built on. When strolling through the pedestrian zone, one does not even notice that one is crossing a bridge over the Ellerbach stream, which is lined on both sides by half-timbered buildings. Thanks to urban redevelopment, the district now presents itself as a pretty wallflower. The evening atmosphere is particularly beautiful when open-air cinema or theater performances are held in the stream bed. From the bridge, you can also see the remains of the old fishermen's gate. From there, the fishermen went to their boats in the “Ellerbachhafen” harbor. The trade died out about 50 years ago.
