Top 20 Natural Monuments around Nijmegen

It can be busy on weekends. It is a popular hiking area.

Climb the 75.9 meter high Duivelsberg and you will be rewarded with a beautiful view of the wooded area and the meadows of the floodplains below the moraine. The Duivelsberg nature reserve of the same name is approximately 125 hectares in size and is covered with deciduous trees, including a large collection of sweet chestnuts. There are many stories about the history of De Duivelsberg. For example, in the 11th century it was the strategic location of a motte (wooden) castle called Mergelp. From the first motte on the edge of De Duivelsberg it was easy to keep an eye on the surroundings. In addition, the hill has a sacred meaning for many and is still used for ceremonies. There are also stories that women who were accused of being witches, were drowned and bandaged in this place. This area originally belonged to Germany and was called Wylerberg or Teufelsberg, but was annexed after the Second World War. Unlike the other areas, the Duivelsberg was not returned, but it is still Dutch land property.

The Wylerberg or Teufelsberg (Duivelsberg in Dutch) is a hill near Nijmegen that originally belonged to the German municipality of Wyler/North Rhine-Westphalia. In 1949, the British military administration placed the mountain under Dutch contract administration on a Dutch initiative and in 1963 it finally became Dutch territory. Source and link to the full article: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wylerberg

The entire area between Duivelsberg and Beek and Berg en Dal is beautiful and it's just a joy to walk here.

Beautiful route, but with some steep height differences.

THE ORIGINAL DEVIL MOUNTAIN After Christianization, this holy place was given the name Duivelsberg and much later this name was attributed to the larger of the two motte hills. Presumably the original Duivelsberg or Zonneberg is a hill located near the pancake restaurant the Witches' Dance in the forest of Berg en Dal. This hill is visibly artificially raised. Behind the hill, a flat, open area has been created. This clearing is easily accessible from the path and today there is a huge beech in the middle. It is a beautiful place whose power and holiness are still palpable. Various shamanic and pagan groups still use this ancient sacred site for their rituals and celebrations. Source: devilsberg.nl

SACRED FOREST Another special aspect of Devil's Mountain is that it was considered a sacred forest for our ancestors. In the villages of Beek-Ubbergen and Berg en Dal there are two hills named Maanberg and Sterrenberg; it is likely that one of the hills in the forest was once Mount Zonneberg. Wikipedia

Devil's Mountain After the Second World War, the Duivelsberg was one of the small German areas that the Netherlands annexed on April 23, 1949. Unlike the other areas, the Duivelsberg was not returned on August 1, 1963, but remained Dutch land property. The politician Marinus van der Goes van Naters – living in nearby Nijmegen – is said to have urged the politicians involved during negotiations with the Federal Republic to allow the nature reserve to remain Dutch. At the bottom of the hill is the Wijlermeer, which is partly part of the area reserved for the Netherlands. The Duivelsberg belonged, through inheritance, from 1906 to Marie Schuster-Hiby, who had an expressionist villa built on the hill between 1921 and 1924, designed by the German architect Otto Bartning. In 1965, the Schuster-Hiby family sold the villa to the State of the Netherlands. Since 1985, Huis Wylerberg has been a protected building as a national monument, where nature conservation organizations are located. There is a pancake restaurant of the same name located near the top of the Duivelsberg.