The Urft () is a right-hand tributary of the Rur in the county of Euskirchen in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It flows through the village of Urft in the municipality of Kall. The Urft rises in the North Eifel region of the Eifel Mountains.
Origin of the name The name of the Urft is derived from Urd-apa. The origin of the word Urd is unknown, but apa is Celtic and means "stream". In 1075, the Urft was called the Urdefa, in 1419 the Orfft and, in 1503, the Oyrfft. The village of Urft takes its name from the river.
Course The Urft rises in the North Eifel in the High Fens-Eifel Nature Park. Its source is in the Dahlem Forest (Dahlemer Wald), west of the Dahlem village of Schmidtheim and (both as the crow flies) northwest of Dahlemer Binz Airfield.
The Urft initially flows through Schmidtheim. From there, it is accompanied by the Eifel Line and joined by the Dänenbach stream. It then flows through the village of Blankenheim-Wald, where it collects the Wisselbach and is crossed by the B 258 federal highway. In the next section, it is joined by more streams including the Treisbach, the Laufbach and the Haubach. At Steinrütsch, which lies in the parish of Nettersheim and where there are the remains of a Roman burgus and castellum (Kleinkastell), it is joined by the Wellenbach in Urft and in Nettersheim the Genfbach. Next, the river runs parallel to the Roman Eifel Aqueduct, which begins at the old Gronrecht Mill (Gronrechtsmühle) near the Grüner Pütz, flows through Urft, where it meets the Gillesbach and, below the village, the Kuttenbach. After that, the Urft flows through Sötenich and Kall, where it leaves both the Eifel Line and the Eifel Aqueduct and collects the Kallbach, before running along the Olef Valley Railway and through Anstois. Next, it passes through Gemünd, where the Olef joins and where the B 265 and B 266 cross the Urft in the village. It then leaves the railway and flows through Malsbenden.
Next, the Urft flows into the Urft Reservoir, which channels its waters usually into a tunnel - the Kermeter Gallery - through the Kermeter ridge north of the reservoir and through the turbines of the Heimbach Power Station with its outflow into the compensating basin of the Heimbach Dam and thus eventually into the Rur. Through this artificial outflow tunnel, the mouth of the Urft is near the Heimbach village of Hasenfeld at Rur . Before the construction of the Urft Dam, the river emptied in a natural way above the Simmerath village of Rurberg roughly at Rur into the Rur. Since the second expansion stage of the Rur Reservoir in 1959, the water from the Obersee on the Rur Dam impounds the old lower reaches of the Urft (near its confluence) on the downstream side of the Urft Dam to a depth of around . From there, the reservoir waters flow, at high water, over the spillway of the Urft Dam.
Catchment area and tributaries The catchment area of the Urft covers , and drains via the Rur, Meuse and Hollands Diep into the North Sea. Tributaries of the Urft GKZ Name Length Catchment Direction Confluence Confluence km mi km2 sqmi km mi location 2822112 N.N. left 2822114 N.N. left 2822116 N.N. right 282212 Dänenbach left Schmidtheim 2822132 Zehnbach right 282214 Wisselbach left Blankenheim-Wald 2822152 Schäferbach right Blankenheim-Wald 2822154 N.N. right 2822156 Treisbach left 282216 Haubach right 2822172 Laufbach left 2822174 Lützertseifen right 2822176 Gelensiefen left 2822178 Wellenbach right 282218 Schleifbach left Nettersheim 28222 Genfbach right Nettersheim 28224 Gillesbach left Urft 282252 Kuttenbach left Urft 28226 Kallbach left Kall 282272 An den Fuchslöchern right Kall 2822732 Fahrenbach left Kall 28227392 Dränkensief left 282274 Mastermühle right 282276 Im Rödchen left 282278 Mühlenbach left 2822792 Seelbach right Gemünd 28228 Olef left Gemünd 2822912 Lompig right Gemünd 2822914 Großer Scheuerbach right Gemünd 2822918 Braubach left Gemünd 2822992 Horrenbach left Gemünd 28229936 Laßbach left 2822994 Großer Böttenbach right 28229952 Morsbach left 2822996 Lorbach right 28229972 Amselbach right 28229974 Hohenbach right 2822998 Vom Walberhof left 28229992 Haftenbach left
See also List of rivers of North Rhine-Westphalia
References
Literature Hans Peter Schiffer: Das Urfttal in der Eifel. Landschaft, Natur, Geschichte. 2nd edn., LandpresseRegio, Weilerswist, 2006.
External links