District Bredeney
The Bredeney district is located in the south of the city and is definitely the most expensive district in Essen. Nowhere else are real estate prices in Essen higher than here, in the Brucker-
Holt neighborhoods live in chic villas with large plots of land – and if you want, you will only meet your neighbors when you stroll along the wide avenues.
Bredeneyer’s history, which has been handed down, begins with a donation to the later Abbey of Werden in 796. The area was first called “brede Aeue” in 875. Until 1803 Bredeney remained an agricultural farming community. From 1780 on, coal mining increasingly shaped the commercial image for 100 years. In 1864 Alfred Krupp settled above the Ruhr and in 1873 moved into the Villa Hügel
After the opening of the streetcar connection to Essen in 1894, Bredeney increasingly became a settlement area for the upper middle class of Essen due to its charming location. Colonies of villas or stately houses were built. In 1915, the wealthy Bredeney was incorporated into the city of Essen and continued to grow between the wars – new villa districts were created. From 1931 to 1933, the Baldeney Lake was created, which, after its completion, was within walking distance of the district. The rapid population growth after 1945 was associated with an expansion to the west.
After 1960, coal mining left Essen’s south and the population declined.
Today Bredeney has about 11000 inhabitants. It extends over an area of 8.76 km² from Lake Baldeney via the Krupp Forest to the Alfredusbad. Bredeney is not only home to office and administrative centers, gastronomy and retail trade as well as numerous service companies, it is also a local recreation area and the green lung of Essen. Bredeney is also home to some of the most beautiful places in Essen: green hiking trails, Lake Baldeney and the historic Villa Hügel, the former seat of the Krupp industrialist family, which tells the story of industrial history. In the southern Heissiwald is the Heissiwald game preserve and invites you to take relaxing walks.
For hiking enthusiasts, Bredeney offers several attractive hiking trails. A popular bicycle and hiking trail stretches along the Baldeney lake for 7 kilometers from Heisingen to Werden. The beautiful Baldeneysteig is 26,7km long and leads once around the lake. Here you can experience the whole beauty of Essen and be amazed how green the Ruhr area is by now. All prejudices about the “Pott” are impressively refuted here!
The center of Bredeney is only about 3 km away from our Hotel An der Gruga, so we are the ideal starting point for your visit of this beautiful district. Especially if you want to experience the green food and are not looking for industrial heritage, we can only recommend Bredeney to you. Since you can make wonderful walking and cycling tours here, we are happy to put our free bicycles at your disposal.
The famous Ruhr Valley Cycle Path also runs along Lake Baldeney and thus right through the heart of Bredeney. Due to its strategic location, the Hotel an der Gruga is a good starting point or stopover on this 260 km long cycle tour.
