Belchen

Northwest view of the Ballon from Munster

The Ballon is 1414 m above sea level. NHN to Feldberg, Seebuck and the little higher Herzogenhorn the fourth highest peak in the Black Forest. At the top of the Ballon d', the boundaries of the municipalities Munster, Schoenberg and Small meadow valley meet.

The mountain has a striking, from the Upper Rhine Plain ago almost symmetrical profile on a treeless hilltop. The name of the Ballon d' ( celtic: the beam end ) carry further increases the adjacent highlands, including two particularly conspicuous when covered with snow mountains in sight; they form, together with the Black Forest called the Ballon Ballon triangle: in the west on the French side of the Upper Rhine valley in the Vosges ( F) of the Ballon d'Alsace or the Ballon d'Alsace; in the south on the south side of the Rhine, the Swiss Ballon, the Belchenflue. Within sight are also in Alsace in the Vosges the Great and the Small Ballon, Grand and Petit Ballon, which, with the Ballon Ballon above the so-called system.

The panorama from the summit includes large parts of the Black Forest to the Hornisgrinde, the Vosges, the Jura and in fine weather the Alps from the Zugspitze to the Mont Blanc. In addition, the Ballon allows wide views down into the Upper Rhine Plain to Alsace.

Geography

The Ballon protrudes from the Münster with its rugged, continuous steep slopes about 1,000 m. Its northern slope is thus the region of highest relief energy of the Central German Uplands. Also to the south of the mountain falls schrofig well 800 meters deep into the valley of the little meadow at Neuenweg.

On the Ballon undulating plateau still largely preserved in the eastern area of the Black Forest is preserved only in small groups. For the Rhine valley and towards blue western main ridge of the southern Black Forest is dissolved by the strong rising of the mountains in the Pleistocene associated vertical erosion of the streams in narrow ridges. The Pleistocene glaciations of the Ballon area do not have such distinct forms of leave as at the Feldberg. North and south were forming avalanche boiler glacier whose maximum levels reaching to the Black Forest.

The mountain top is made of granite, while the surrounding cliffs consist mainly of gneiss. The environment of the Ballon was a temporary major mining area between the years 900 and 1975.

About the summit of the Ballon performs a chain of well-preserved landmarks from the year 1790. This marked the time the border between the Habsburg Further Austria in the north and the Margraviate of Baden in the south of the mountain.

Nature reserve Ballon

Because of the rare fauna and flora of the Ballon has already been asked in 1949 under nature protection. In 1993, the reserve was expanded and is now covering an area of ​​approximately 1600 hectares one of the largest protected areas in Baden- Württemberg.

In the highlands of the Ballon d' many rare butterfly, beetles and birds can be found. Typical birds are Raven, Song Thrush, Zitronengirlitz and water pipit; but also peregrine falcon, capercaillie and hazel grouse can be found at Ballon.

The plants themselves relics from the last ice age have received that are otherwise only found in the Alps. These include Swiss Bellflower, Mountain Rose or Swiss dandelion. In addition, there occurs a variety of rare species of lichen.

Tourism

With more than 300,000 visitors to the Ballon one of the most popular destinations in the southern Black Forest.

In 1866 the first rest house was built below the summit. 1899, the new building was completed, which was until today expanded several times and rebuilt. 1904, the road was opened for the Ballon d'. 1949 failed the project to tap from Obermünstertal from the summit with a chairlift. Slopes are only limited available; nevertheless eleven ski lifts are after all installed in the Ballon area. The Belchenstraße was the highest public road leading up the Central German Uplands. The top section is for opening the cable car in December 2001, closed to private vehicles.

To protect the valuable nature reserve, visitor management and as a further development of the so-called concept Ballon concept was a model developed and presented as a model in 2008. It formulates objectives, recommendations and areas of action not only for offices and institutions, but also for citizens and guests. On the development of the Forestry Testing and Research Institute of Baden -Württemberg in Freiburg, the Sport University Cologne, the Black Forest Nature Park, the municipality Munster, the holiday region Munster - Staufen and private citizens of the Munster were involved.

Ballon cable car

The Ballon cable car runs as gondola with eight persons which cabins from the valley station in Aitern - Multen ( GVV Schönau ) to 1356 meters high mountain station. At a length of 1150 meters, a height difference of 262 meters is thereby overcome. The theoretical capacity of 1200 people per hour. The cabins of the train type Leitner CA 8-2000 were originally produced for the cable car at the Expo 2000 in Hanover. The Ballon train has disabled Ein-/Ausstiege in the valley and mountain station.

The daily loading of track with 23 detachable gondolas (plus 2 spare cabins) from the gondola garage in the driving direction, the Eingaragieren in reverse, and that each is fully automatic. The vehicle speed is 0.3 m / s to 5.0 m / s adjustable. The highest of the eight pillars of the cable car is 18.6 meters high. The drive power is 340 kW. The hoist rope has a diameter of 46 mm. The web has 108 track rollers.

Others

By the year 1955, the Ballon Hill festival took place on the Ballon d', organizing a yearly Mountain Gymnastics Festival.

At the end of 2011, was created by the artist Marco Schuler with his work Orbi, a cube of 30 banks that had been used in the Pope's visit in September 2011 in Freiburg. This veiled until 31 August 2012, the summit cross.