Amselsee

The Amselsee Rathen is a small reservoir in Rathen in Saxon Switzerland in the Free State of Saxony ( Germany ).

History

The first ideas for conditioning the reservoir was created in the late 1920s. In particular, the Rathener local government forced the project because they hoped thereby an even higher attractiveness of the landscape and thus a revival of tourism. At the same time, the reservoir for flood control, fire-extinguishing purposes and for fish farming should serve. After fierce controversy between landscape conservationists and representatives of tourism on 21 July 1934, the first sod.

Was for the Amselsee the Gruenbach (or Amselgrund Bach), the main river in Amselgrund, short dammed in its most balanced section above the leading- west Wehlgrundes by around five meters high dam. It has a bottom outlet with a diameter of 50 cm and a flood attack with 7 spans of 2.0 m width in the middle of the wall. The completion of the dam took place on 19 December 1934. The construction costs amounted to 31,000 Reichsmarks.

The Amselsee called reservoir quickly developed into a tourist attraction in the municipality of Rathen. The approximately 540 -meter-long body of water is surrounded by a number of climbing rocks, under which the locomotive is the most famous. For boat trips on the lake were initially 12 rowing boats and 12 sloops available. On 5 July 1957, a severe rainstorm caused great damage to the dam and the lake, the partially silted. In 1983, the previous boats were replaced by 30 new steel boats. Ten years later (1993 ), the lake was dredged, while about 5,000 cubic meters of mud and sand were disposed of. Due to the flood in August 2002, it became necessary again in 2003 to dredge approximately 3,000 cubic meters of sand and mud. As of 2004, the renovation of the dam, the leading along the lake path as well as the procurement of 20 rowboats.

Data of the structure

• Shut-off: 35 meters long, straight gravity dam of rubble masonry
• Jam mirror Length: about 540 meters
• Water area: 12,200 m²
• Water content: about 19,000 m³
• Water depth: Up to 4 meters

Flora and Fauna

The reservoir is used for fish farming, the trout stocking is partly mixed with American rainbow trout. In the riparian vegetation can be observed Demoiselles.

Gallery

View of the dam

The old boats at the dam

The new boats at the dam