Zittau Mountains

Zittau Mountains
(*Zittauer Gebirge*)
Zittau Mountains; (Zittauer Gebirge)
	View over Waltersdorf to the Lausche
Highest point
Peak	Lausche
Elevation	792.6 m above NN
Geography
	Zittau Mountains; (Zittauer Gebirge) Location within Saxony
State(s)	Görlitz, Saxony, Germany
Range coordinates	50°50′56″N 14°38′49″E / 50.84889°N 14.64694°E
Parent range	Lusatian Mountains (cross-border range) and the overarching Saxon Highlands and Uplands (GE)

The Zittau Mountains (German: Zittauer Gebirge, Czech: Žitavské hory; Upper Sorbian: Žitawske horiny), formerly also called the Lusatian Ridge (Lausitzer Kamm; Łužiski česak), refer to the German part of the Lusatian Mountains that straddle the Saxon-Bohemian border in the extreme southeast of the German state of Saxony.

Geography

Location

The Zittau Mountains lie in the extreme south of the district of Görlitz in Saxony. A few kilometres north of the range lie a number of settlements; from west to east they are Großschönau, Hainewalde, Olbersdorf, Bertsdorf-Hörnitz and Zittau. In the mountains themselves are, again from west to east, the settlements of Waltersdorf, Oybin, Jonsdorf and Lückendorf . The highlands are drained by streams that flow roughly north into the Mandau, a western tributary of the Lusatian Neisse.

Mountains

Among the highest mountains in the range are the following (in order of height in m above NN:

Lausche (Luž; 792.6 m), German-Czech border mountain, south of Waltersdorf
Hochwald (Hvozd; 749.5 m), German-Czech border mountain, south-southwest of Oybin
Jonsberg (652.9 m), east-southeast of Jonsdorf
Buchberg (651.6 m), west of Jonsdorf
Scharfenstein (569.4 m), east of Oybin, north-northwest of Lückendorf
Breiteberg (510.1 m), east of Großschönau, south of Hainewalde
Oybin (514.5 m), north of Oybin
Töpfer (582.0 m), northeast of Oybin, south of Olbersdorf

Places of interest

Oybin mountain with castle and monastery ruins
Mühlsteinbrüche, rock formations in Jonsdorf
Große Felsengasse ("Great Rock Alley")
Töpfer mountain
Lausche (792.6m), the highest summit in the Zittau Mountains
Breiteberg
Scharfenstein
Orgel (organ) - a rock formation in the Jonsdorfer Felsenstadt
Kelchstein ("Chalice Rock", Upper Sorbian: Kelch-skalizna; 50°49′59.2″N 14°44′29.8″E / 50.833111°N 14.741611°E / 50.833111; 14.741611): a mushroom rock in the mountains near Oybin. The Kelchstein consists of a Cretaceous sandstone with very little cementing material. Its unusual mushroom shape has been caused by wind and other erosive processes on sandstone strata of different hardness. The Kelchstein is one of the best known climbing rocks in the Zittau Mountains. It was first climbed before 1785, when woodcutters fixed a plaque to the summit; the plaque is no longer there. Its development for sports climbing started on 3 September 1911. Dresden climbers ascended the rocks with the aid of a tree at its northwestern corner. The first sports climb without any aids was up the present-day "Old Way" (Alter Weg) by Siegfried Schreiber on 26 June 1946. The Kelch is one of the most difficult summits to climb in the Zittau Mountains. Today there are only five routes, all at climbing grades of VIIc and VIIIc.
Nonnenfelsen ("Nun's Rock") near Jonsdorf
Zittau Narrow Gauge Railway
Lusatian timber-frame farmhouses (Umgebindehäuser), especially in Waltersdorf, Jonsdorf and Bertsdorf

References

↑ Map services Archived December 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine of the BfN

General sources

BfN
- Map services
- Landscape fact file Zittau Mountains

Literature

Peter Rölke (ed.): Wander- & Naturführer Zittauer Gebirge, Berg- & Naturverlag Rölke, Dresden 2006, ISBN 3-934514-17-0

External links

climbers on the Kelchstein in the ARD Mediathek

[BfN-Karten-1] Map services Archived December 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine of the BfN

Authority control databases
International	VIAF GND
National	United States Czech Republic Israel
Other	Yale LUX