Saarburg Waterfall

The Saarburg Waterfall was a charming urban waterfall spilling within the old town (altstadt) of the medieval city of Saarburg. While we tend to have negative perceptions of urbanized man-modified waterfalls, the developed surroundings actually added a bit of charm and atmosphere to the overall experience.

For starters, the waterfall was flanked by historical buildings including a water mill that diverted some of the water at the base of the falls to a waterwheel. The buildings were made in the traditional half-timbered style that really amped up the cuteness and charm factor. Such architectural styles seemed prevalent in all the German speaking countries we’ve visited so far (namely Germany, Austria, and Switzerland).

As for the waterfall itself, it spilled over 60ft on the Leuk Stream (Leukbach) before joining the Saar River, which ultimately joined up with the famed Mosel River (or Moselle in French) further downstream. The Leukbach was said to be channeled through the Saarburg City Center as a result of a 13th century project, which thereby resulted in the creation of the Saarburg Waterfall.

While there were many ways to reach the Saarburg Waterfall after leaving the car at one of several car parks in and around town, we’ll describe our walking route from the car park that was near the Alt (Old) Saarburg (see directions below).

From the car park, we walked beneath the bridge supporting the L132 road, then we followed the narrow street called Staden through the lower extremes of Old Saarburg. After roughly 200m along this relatively quiet street, we then reached a fork. Keeping straight at the fork led us to a dead-end right a mill. Going left at the fork led us up a narrow, twisting, and sloping alleyway before we eventually arrived at an overlook about 50m or so up this climb.

At this vantage point, we managed to get direct frontal views of the Saarburg Waterfall (like what you see above). Continuing a few more paces up the sloping alleyway, we then arrived at a street junction near the Sankt Laurentius Catholic Church. Keeping right at this junction, we followed the Leukbach further upstream while flanked by cute cafes and shops in what appeared to be the heart of the historical city.

There were pedestrian bridges across the Leukbach, which allowed us to experience top down views of the waterfall from both sides. There were also more cafes and shops on the opposite side of the watercourse so one could relax and soak in the ambience of the historical center of the medieval city with the sounds of the waterfall itself.

Overall, we spent less than an hour away from the car though it’s easy to spend more or less time here (possibly in less than 30 minutes) depending on how much time you’re willing to spend here.

Finally, something that we noticed regarding German and Austrian waterfalls was that there tended to be many different spellings or pronunciations referring to what we’re calling the Saarburg Waterfall. Thus, you might see the falls referred to as (der) Wasserfall Saarburg or Saarburg Wasserfall, which would be the way German speakers would refer to it.