131. Pulheimer Sonntagstour

The older forts of the inner fortification belt:

Inner fortification belt of Cologne

Between Otto-Fischer-Straße, Köln-Süd station and Zülpicher Straße is Fort V, of which only the middle section of the building, the central structure built in a semicircle, is preserved and which today houses parts of the 'Geographic Institute of the University of Cologne'. The building, constructed between 1841 and 1846 and originally two stories high, has lost height due to earthworks. Inside the semicircular structure, the projecting round stair towers stand out clearly from the clearly structured facade. The design of the facade's division - essentially characterized by round-arched windows with a simple overhang arch and a wide cornice - has its roots in Berlin architecture.

Fort IV at Eifelstraße/Volksgartenstraße, named after Hereditary Grand Duke Paul of Mecklenburg and built around 1820, was incorporated into the newly created Volksgarten between 1887 and 1889 after its abandonment as a fortification. In the course of the associated redesign, all the ditches were filled in except for a small section, and the two stair extensions were raised to observation towers. The semicircular central structure was converted into a restaurant with a rooftop garden. The finely designed rose garden laid out in front of the central structure still exists, but the attractive garden design in the ditch no longer exists.

Of the formerly nine lunettes, Lunette 3 in Volksgarten (built in 1841) is the only one that has remained in ruins. However, only parts of the earth-covered rampart and the elongated central building remain. In Cologne, the lunettes had the complete form of bastions with two faces (the side facing the attacker) and flanks (area between the field side and the curtain wall).

Fort I is located at Agrippina-Ufer. The fortification at the South Bridge was built in 1830 as a Rhine bulwark, converted into a fort in 1841 and incorporated into the wall constructed between 1881 and 1891. After the wall's abandonment, the surrounding areas and the fortification were transformed into a green area from 1914 to 1916 (formerly known as Hindenburg Park, now Peace Park). Maintaining the elevation differences of ditches and walls, a varied park was created with a rose garden, copses, and resting areas. The preserved building of the central structure was for a time used as a cafeteria of the university, and today it houses meeting rooms for youth groups. On the central structure, a memorial for fallen soldiers was erected in 1926.

The South Bridge, built between 1906 and 1910 for freight traffic, features massive bridge towers. The lower areas served, as in the case of the Hohenzollern Bridge, for the defense of the bridgehead within the fortress of Cologne. The low spaces inside were also used for the positioning of artillery. This allowed, on the one hand, to prevent the destruction of the bridge by the enemy. On the other hand, it also prevented the bridge from being used by enemies as a transit route. The loopholes in the base of the bridge towers have military reasons.

The Rheinkehlmauer on the Deutz Rhine bank was built in 1818 as a so-called infantry wall for the defense of the Deutz Rhine bank. The wall built of horizontally laid basalt steles and equipped with loopholes is today filled to parapet height on the Deutz side and is only visible as such from the Rhine side. The Kehl Wall is the last testimony of the former defenses of Deutz. During the redesign of the Deutz bank around 1940, the still-existing staircase was built in the area of a wall projection of the Kehl wall for the planned 'International Transportation Exhibition'.

Fort XV (8) no longer exists. Only the landscaping in the area of the Rheinpark café remains as a testament to its existence, which was built at the rubble hill of the fort for the Bundesgartenschau 1957. The location of the destroyed central structure corresponds to the site of today's café, from whose higher terrace one can look into the former ditch.

Fort X, named after Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (Neusser Wall/Lentstraße), was built from 1816 to 1825, like four other works, as an isolated fort and integrated into the later wall from 1881 onwards. It consists of an inner semicircular building and an external complex covered with earth separated by a moat, which is again surrounded by a moat. After the cessation of the function of fortress, in the early 1920s, a rose garden was created on the roof of the outer building. The visible relieving arches in the masonry and the partial use of basalt as building material testify to the solid construction of the massive structure. Fort X is still preserved in all its essential parts and is considered one of the most magnificent and significant Prussian fortifications in Cologne due to its basic structure. The geometrically designed rose garden increases the importance of the fortification. The former ditches today have playgrounds.