| Rhön Mountains | |
|---|---|
 View from theSoisberg looking south towards the Rhön | |
| Highest point | |
| Peak | Wasserkuppe |
| Elevation | 950 m above NN |
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 70 km (43 mi) |
| Area | 1,860 km2 (720 sq mi) |
| Geography | |
 Physical overview of the Rhön Mountains | |
| Country | Germany |
| States | |
| Range coordinates | 50°31′00″N10°02′29″E / 50.516551°N 10.041391°E /50.516551; 10.041391 |
| Parent range | East Hessian Highlands |
| Geology | |
| Orogeny | Low mountains |
| Rock age | 250 - 23mya |
| Rock types | |
TheRhön Mountains (German:[ˈʁøːn]ⓘ) are a group of low mountains (orMittelgebirge) in centralGermany, located around the border area where the states ofHesse,Bavaria andThuringia come together. These mountains, which are at the extreme southeast end of theEast Hesse Highlands (Osthessisches Bergland), are partly a result of ancientvolcanic activity. They are separated from theVogelsberg Mountains by the riverFulda and its valley. The highest mountain in the Rhön is theWasserkuppe (950.2 metres or 3,117 feet), which is inHesse. The Rhön Mountains are a popular tourist destination and walking area.
The nameRhön is often thought to derive from the Celtic wordraino (=hilly), but numerous other interpretations are also possible. Records of the monks atFulda Abbey from theMiddle Ages describe the area around Fulda as well as more distant parts of the Rhön asBuchonia, the land of ancientbeech woods. In the Middle Ages beech was an important raw material. Large scale wood clearing resulted in the "land of open spaces" (Land der offenen Fernen), 30% of which, today, is forested.
Lying within the states of Hesse, Bavaria and Thuringia, the Rhön is bounded by theKnüll to the northwest, theThuringian Forest to the northeast, theGrabfeld to the southeast,Lower Franconia to the south, theSpessart forest to the southwest and theVogelsberg mountains to the west.
Based on the effects of ancient volcanic activity, the Rhön can be divided into the "Anterior Rhön" (Vorderrhön), the "Kuppen Rhön" (geographical region 353,Kuppenrhön) and the "High Rhön" (354,Hohe Rhön).
The terms "Anterior Rhön" (Vorderrhön) and "Kuppen Rhön" (Kuppenrhön orKuppige Rhön) are somewhat misleading, since the "Anterior Rhön" also consists mainly ofKuppen or low mountains with dome-shaped summits. The name has genuine historic origins: the "Anterior Rhön", as viewed from Thuringia, forms the foothills (or anterior part) of the mountain region.
In this gently rolling landscape numerous individual dome-shaped mountains rise on both sides of the border of Hesse and Thuringia and also, in some places, in Bavaria. TheseKuppen are the remnants of ancient volcanos or volcanic activity.
The Rhön and its immediate declivities are divided by theHandbook of the Natural Region Divisions of Germany into the followingnatural regions:[1]
The High Rhön (German:Hohe Rhön orHochrhön) is that part of the central Rhön that lies inHesse,Bavaria, and to a lesser extent inThuringia; it covers an area of 344 km2 (132.8 sq mi)[3] Landscape fact files by theBfN (cf. section onNatural region division) and is up to 950.0 m (3,117 ft) and whose highland plateaux with elevations starting at 600 to 700 m (1,969 to 2,297 ft) are covered by solidbasalt. Its core area in the northeast used to be called thePlattenrhön. The High Rhön is a natural regional major unit in the East Hesse Highlands; seeNatural regions.
The High Rhön has five main mountainous regions:
At the heart of the Rhön, albeit only the fourth highest summit of these mountains, is theHeidelstein (925.7 m (3,037 ft)) on the border between Bavaria and Hesse on the Rhine-Weser watershed. It forms the main high point on the plateau of the Long Rhön, which runs northeast over theStirnberg (901.9 m (2,959 ft)) as far as theEllenbogen (Schnitzersberg) (815.5 m (2,676 ft)) without crossing any significant lower ground. Within the Long Rhön the basalt layer is almost unbroken.
At the Heidelstein, another natural region, theWasserkuppen Rhön, branches off in a north to northwesterly direction to the Rhön's highest summit, theWasserkuppe (950.0 m (3,117 ft)), whose basalt likewise covers a wide area, but is broken in places bybunter sandstone andmuschelkalk – in particular the basaltkuppen of theWeiherberg (785.7 m (2,578 ft), northwest) andEhrenberg (816.5 m (2,679 ft) northeast) are slightly separated from the rest.
Between the northeastern end of the Wasserkuppen Rhön at the Ehrenberg and the plateau of the Long Rhön from the Heidelstein to just beyond the Stirnberg is the UpperUlster valley, which cuts into the bunter sandstone by up to about 300 m (984 ft) and divides thePlattenrhön in two.
The Long Rhön runs southwest along the main watershed to theDammersfeld ridge which continues along the watershed via theHohe Hölle (893.8 m (2,932 ft)) andEierhauckberg (909.9 m (2,985 ft)) to theDammersfeldkuppe (927.9 m (3,044 ft)), the ridge being clearly narrower than the Long Rhön and its basalt layer being interrupted several times. TheGroßer (808.6 m (2,653 ft)) andKleiner Auersberg (about 808 m (2,651 ft)), separated by the valley of theSchmale Sinn, are also part of this natural region.
South of Heidelstein and Hoher Hölle the narrow head of theBrend valley nearBischofsheim forms the boundary with another mountain group of the High Rhön, the Kreuzberg Group, which contains theArnsberg (843.1 m (2,766 ft)) and theKreuzberg (927.8 m (3,044 ft)). In between these two mountains lies the source of theSinn. This river, which forms a wide and deepvalley head flanked by the Dammersfeld ridge, flows to the southwest.
On the other side of the Sinn valley, and southwest of the Kreuzberg Group, are theBlack Mountains (German:Schwarze Berge), which include theSchwarzenberg (Feuerberg, 832.0 m (2,730 ft)) andTotnansberg (839.4 m (2,754 ft)). They are separated from the Kreuzberg Group by the narrow valley of thePremich's upper reaches, theKellersbach.
Clearly different from the aforementioned ridges is theeastern slope of the Long Rhön, which forms the transition zone from the High Rhön to the muschelkalk region of the Mellrichstadt Gäu (Mellrichstädter Gäu), the eastern part of theWerra Gäu Plateaux. Individual domes rise from the descendingTriassic beds east of the solid basalt covering of the Long Rhön in theinterfluvials of the tributaries of theFranconian Saale between Brend andStreu, notably theGangolfsberg (735.8 m (2,414 ft)) and theRother Kuppe (710.6 m (2,331 ft)). This landscape bears a clear resemblance to the Kuppen Rhön.
TheWildflecken Training Area, which covers an area of 74 km2 (28.6 sq mi), equivalent to almost a quarter of the High Rhön, is not accessible to the public.
The 1,200 square kilometres (460 sq mi)[3] of the "Kuppen Rhön in its narrow sense", to which the Anterior Rhön also belongs,[4] is the wide outer fringe of markedly different relief, that circles around theHigh Rhön from the northeast (inThuringia) through the northwest (inHesse) to the southwest (with small parts inBavaria). Numerous dome-shaped isolated mountains and hills rise above the valleys to 500–800 metres (1,640–2,625 ft), whose basalt covering is concentrated around the summit regions and does not blanket the entire landscape, as it does in the High Rhön. The domes orkuppen are the stumps of heavily weathered formervolcanoes orvolcanic pipes. Between pointed cones and broad domes lie many small plateaux, especially common in the Anterior Rhön.
Over a foundation of MiddleBunter sandstone lie stratigraphic sequences of Upper Bunter (Röt),muschelkalk andkeuper, the last two rocks only surviving where they have been protected by an overlying sheet ofbasalt. Woods cover less than a third of the area and are largely restricted to the summit regions. Five natural regions may be distinguished:
The eastern part of the Kuppen Rhön is the ThuringianAnterior Rhön, which reaches a height of 750.7 m (2,463 ft) at the huge plateau of theGebaberg in the southeast. There is hardly any keuper escarpment there at all. Thekuppen andplateaux rest directly on a bedrock of muschelkalk. This natural region runs northeast from the wide, pyramidalPleß, 645.4 m (2,117 ft), far into the Bunter sandstone of the Stadlengsfeld Hills that descend to the RiverWerra. In the west theMiddle Felda Valley forms a natural boundary betweenKaltensundheim in the south and belowDermbach in the north.
West of the Felda valley is the Auersberg Kuppenrhön (Auersberger Kuppenrhön), which lies mainly in Thuringia, but extends into Hesse in the southwest. This natural region runs from the town ofAuersberg in the south, which gives the region its name, to the boundary with theLong Rhön at theEllenbogen, 756.8 m (2,483 ft). In the northeast of the region, the prominentkuppe of theBaier reaches a height of 713.9 m (2,342 ft), but its northernmost summit is the popular viewing mountain ofOechsen. The western boundary is the MiddleUlster Valley betweenHilders in the south and belowButtlar in the north.
West of the Ulster valley is the Soisberg Kuppenrhön (Soisberger Kuppenrhön), which lies mainly in Hesse, with elements in the southeast also extending into Thuringia. This region reaches a height of 629.9 m (2,067 ft) at theSoisberg in the north where the countryside is enclosed by theSeulingswald forest. It reaches even greater elevations in the extreme southeast, where theHabelberg (718.5 m (2,357 ft)) west ofTann stands opposite to and north of the Auersberg. This natural region is well known for theHessian Skittles, a striking regular array of high, gently rounded, basalt cones up to 552.9 m (1,814 ft). North and south of the skittles most of thekuppen in this natural region are also arranged in a row along the watershed between the Werra and the Fulda and between the Ulster and theHaune respectively. To the west they do not quite reach the Haune at theHaune Plateaux; to the south theNüst valley belowObernüst forms a natural boundary.
The almost entirely Hessian range of the Milseburg Kuppenrhön (Milseburger Kuppenrhön), which bounds theWasserkuppen Rhön, up to 950.0 m (3,117 ft), south of the Nüst valley and west of the Ulster valley. Again the keuper escarpment is missing and even the muschelkalk only appears in islands around individual domes. The majority of the basalt andphonolite cones sit directly on the sandstones of the Middle Bunter. Cutting deeply into the sandstone, the rivers of the Haune and theFulda flow westwards. The phonolitic cone of theMilseburg (835.2 m (2,740 ft)) is the only mountain in the Kuppen Rhön that exceeds the 800-metre-mark. Even the height of theGroßer Nallenberg (768.3 m (2,521 ft)) south of the Fulda, is not reached in other parts of the region. To the southwest the area is bounded by the rocky sandstone of theHoher Kammer (700.0 m (2,297 ft)), as it descends from the heights of theDammersfeld ridge (up to 927.9 m (3,044 ft)).
Separated from the Kammer by the upper reaches of theDöllbach, theDöllau, theGroße Haube (658.1 m (2,159 ft)) on the Rhine-Weser watershed opens the Brückenau Kuppenrhön, whose western half is in Hesse and whose eastern half is in Bavaria. The valleys of theSchmaler andBreiter Sinn running southwestwards, divide the natural region, which is clearly more heterogenous than the other ranges of the Kuppen Rhön, into three segments. In the west, the rugged plateaux ofdolerite and basalt transition into theLandrücken, whilst the northeast of theKleiner Auersberg (c. 808 m (2,651 ft)) leads up to the Dammersfeld ridge. Between the more rugged plateaux and ridges there are gently domed basalt intrusions that rise up, especially in the southeast, left of the Sinn nearBad Brückenau. TheDreistelzberg in the extreme south reaches 660.4 m (2,167 ft).
The most well-known peaks in the Rhön Mountains include:
The following rivers rise in the Rhön Mountains or flow by or through them(length given in brackets):
The nameRhön is believed to be of Celtic origin. A regional Celtic presence is well established, with an important Celtic town atMilseburg. Furthermore, there are circular embankments that could be both of Celtic and of Germanic origin in theKuppenrhön on the Stallberg and the Kleinberg mountains. Many names of places, mountains and meadows in the Rhön likely have their origins in Celtic root words.
Up to the 10th century parts of the Rhön belonged toAltgauBuchonia. This term was coined by the Romans inLate Antiquity and described an ancient beech forest in the Rhön and the neighbouring low mountain ranges of theSpessart andVogelsberg. Expansive stands of beech still exist today in the area.
Due to the far reaching view from the Rhön mountains, they became sites for hilltop castles in theMiddle Ages. One example isHauneck Castle (Burg Hauneck) on theStoppelsberg, the ruins of which can still be seen. It served to oversee and protect traffic on the ancient road, theAntsanvia, as well as protecting the villages in the Haune valley.
In the Middle Ages theWürzburg Defences (landwehr) were erected on theHochrhön for the protection of its farmers.
The Rhön was also home to the Christian Community known as the Bruderhof from 1926 to 1937 when it wasdissolved by Nazi persecution.[5]
In 1991UNESCO declared parts of the Rhön aBiosphere Reserve on account of its unique high-altitude ecosystem.
As a result of its geography and geology the Rhön is an area with higher-than-average number of differenthabitats andspecies. But man, too, has generated valuable secondary habitats by creating a rich cultural landscape.
Compared with other low mountain regions, the Rhön is particularly rich in plant varieties. Its natural vegetation would probably be dominated bybeech woods with scattered groups of other trees, but today beech trees are very much in decline. A few of these ancient woods were identified as core elements of the Rhön biosphere reserve. The higher beech woods are a habitat for rare, sometimes isolated, species of plant such as theAlpine blue-sow-thistle,giant bellflower andannual honesty. The vegetation of the lower-lying beech woods has a mix of mountain and other varieties. In addition to common wildflowers like themartagon lily,lily of the valley,wild chervil andwild garlic, variousorchids also flourish here includingCephalanthera orchids, theyellow coralroot,bird's-nest orchid,lady's slipper andlady orchid.
Only small areas of the Rhön landscape are essentially open: theraised bogs (Hochmoore), the rock outcrops and thestone runs. These habitats are home to highly specialised species. The raised bogs of theLong Rhön - theRed Moor (Rotes Moor) and theBlack Moor (Schwarzes Moor) are floristically important links between the northern and Alpine raised bogs. Here, for example, can be foundsundews,crowberry andcottongrass. Growing amongst the rocks of the volcanic mountains are rare species such asCheddar pink,sweet william catchfly,oblong woodsia andfir clubmoss.
There are no naturally occurringconiferous forests in the Rhön, but notable species of wild flower such as thelady's slipper orchid,creeping lady's tresses andburning-bush are found in the forests of mixed pine.
The cultural landscape formed by humankind over the centuries also has a great variety of habitats and plants however, today, the extensive grassland areas are amongst the most threatened and heavily cultivated habitats. It is on thesemi-arid grasslands andjuniper heaths that thesilver thistle, symbol of the Rhön region, grows, alongsidegentians,pasque flowers andwood anemones, as well as orchids like theearly purple,fragrant andfly orchids. Rarer flowers include the variousbee orchids and themilitary,lady,burnt,green-winged,man,pyramidal,frog andlizard orchids. Along the southern fringes of the Rhön, on the so-called slopes of steppe heathland (Steppenheidenhängen) grow warmth-loving plants such aswhite rock-rose,erect clematis andhonewort.
Amongst the most valuable habitats in the Rhön are the mountain meadows and fields of mat grass (Nardetum strictae) on the higher slopes.[6] Characteristic plants here include themonkshood,northern wolfsbane,common moonwort,martagon lily,greater butterfly orchid,perennial cornflower andwig knapweed.
Bog-bean,grass of Parnassus'western marsh orchid andlousewort are found in thewet meadows and low marshes; and the extremely rarelarge brown clover,hairy stonecrop andPyrenean scurvygrass in the springwater marshes of theHohe Rhön.
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The wildlife in the Rhön mountains is similar to that of other low mountain ranges, but there are also some unusual species. In addition to the more common mammals such asroe deer,fox,badger,hare andwild boar, there are also smaller mammals such as thedormouse, commonwater shrew andMiller's water shrew. One unusual regional species is thealpine shrew. Birds occurring here include theblack grouse, thecapercaillie, theblack stork, theeagle owl, thecorncrake, thered-backed shrike and thewryneck. There are also two speciesendemic to the Rhön: therove beetle and a local snail, theRhönquellschnecke (Bythinella compressa).
TheDachmarke Rhön project (Rhön umbrella brand project) is run by the Rhön working group and its aim is to promote a common identity for the Rhön region and to present a unified view of the area to the outside world and to harmonise the marketing measures of the three participating federal states.
These mountains are a popular tourist destination.Hikers come for the nearly 6,000 km (3,700 mi) of trails, andgliding enthusiasts have been drawn to the area since the early 20th century. More recently, farm holidays have been flourishing in the region.
Towns and larger villages close to the Rhön are:
There are well-marked walks and hiking trails in the Rhön which are looked after by theRhön Club. TheRhön-Höhen-Weg ("Rhön Heights Walk" or RHW) is marked with a horizontal, red teardrop. It is 137 km (85 mi) long and runs fromBurgsinn inMain-Spessart district through Roßbach, Dreistelz, Würzburger Haus on the Farnsberg, Kissinger Hütte on the Feuerberg, Kreuzberg (monastery), Oberweißenbrunn, through theRed andBlack Moors, over the Ellenbogen and the Emberg via Oberalba, past Baier toStadtlengsfeld and on to its destination atBad Salzungen on theWerra River.
Other hiking trails are:
In addition the following pass through the Rhön:
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