Nestled behind Waldeck Castle in the Hanau state forest, Waldeck Pond lies in the hamlet of Waldeck, in the municipality of Eguelshardt. Often covered in water lilies, it can be reached directly by road and admired all year round from the dam.
A biological reserve
The pond is a classified biological reserve, remarkable for both its fauna and its flora. Among other species you can observe grey herons, ducks, moorhens, toads and dragonflies.
The vegetation is typical of wetlands and peat bogs: heather, sphagnum (water-soaked mosses), cotton grass, and an unusual carnivorous plant, the round-leaved sundew.
Walking
A small, well-marked path goes almost all the way around the site and offers superb views of the peat-bog pond, its fauna and its flora. From the pond, a path leads up to the ruins of Waldeck Castle, and several hiking trails link Waldeck Pond with the Étang de Hanau and the Erbsenfelsen sandstone arch.
Good to know
- Fishing, swimming and picking plants are strictly prohibited.
- Please stay on the paths to protect this fragile environment.
Photos: Tp Uploads and PaulT (Gunther Tschuch) (1, 2), Wikimedia Commons, licence CC BY-SA 4.0. Text source: Wikipedia – Étang de Waldeck (French).
