Felsberg (Odenwald)
The Ohlyturm on the rocky mountain
The Felsberg belongs with 514 m above sea level. NN the highest elevations in the Middle Odenwald. He is known especially through the Great Rocks Sea at its south-eastern slope and lies on the boundary between the district of Darmstadt -Dieburg and the circle mountain road in Hesse.
Geography
Geographical location
The rocky mountain that culminates in a one kilometer long rising from southwest to northeast ridge that forms on an area of 10.70 km ², the natural spatial subset of the 145.03 Melibokus - Odenwald. The Melibokus is the rock mountain, separated by the Hochstädter Valley, eastern neighbor. To the south lies at his feet in the Lauter and the east and north around him the Modautal. Beyond the Lauter valley it is opposite in the southern and eastern sides of the Krehberg Modautals the Neunkircher height.
Three municipalities share in the mountain massif. A small part of the West lies in the district high cities in the town of Bensheim. The north slope belongs to the district Balkhausen the community Seeheim- Jugenheim. The southern slope of the Great Rocks Sea and the Ohlyturm on the tip lies in the district of Reichenbach, the East is part of the district Beedenkirchen. Both villages are part of the community Lauter. Forest roads lead from the Kuralpe in the north and in the east of Beedenkirchen to the summit and to the settled there gastronomy. Due to its central location between the metropolitan Rhine -Neckar and Rhine- Main, the rock mountain area is a popular tourist destination.
Geology
The rock of the mountain rock consists of quartz diorite, which belongs to the group of granitoids and is composed of the minerals feldspar, hornblende, pyroxene, quartz and other minor accessory ingredients. Formed on the flanks of the mountain rock by weathering processes ( Wollsackverwitterung ) numerous boulders which are colloquially called rock oceans. Most famous is the Great Rocks Sea on the southeast slope of the mountain.
Attractions
The Ohlyturm, a granite -built, 27-meter high observation tower, is the symbol of the rock mountain. Today, the Ohlyturm is considered particularly striking example of the romanticized historicism of the 19th century, whose role models were medieval castles and other fortifications. The tower is listed as a cultural monument under § 2 section 1 of the Hessian Monument Act. Namesake of the tower is the former Darmstadt Lord Mayor Christian Karl Albrecht Ohly. The tower was first built in 1891 by the Department of the Darmstadt Odenwaldklub of wood. In 1902, he was then replaced by the present stone building.
The Olyturm is in disrepair for a long time and therefore can not be entered. The tower was According to the local government and the Lauter APEG eV ( Working Group Partnership European communities ) Lauter acquired surprisingly by a British investor by 2007 and be open to the public after restoration work.
Conservation
The south-eastern flank of the mountain, either Natura 2000 - Area. In view of the more than 100,000 tourists visit the rock sea located in this nature reserve each year, the juxtaposition of nature conservation and tourism proved problematic. There are no particular restrictions on use for the northwestern flank (towards Seeheim- Jugenheim, Bensheim, Lauter - Elmshausen, Bensheim -Auerbach and Bensheim - Höchstädten ) of the rock mountain.
Literature and maps
- Marieta Hiller: Adventure Felsberg. Rock oceans and Roman stones. Hiller, Glaser and Reiser, Lauter 2002, ISBN 3-9806064-3-0
- Hessian Landesvermessungsamt: TF 20-5, mountain road -Odenwald. Topographic Recreation Map 1:20,000. Hessian Land Survey Office, Wiesbaden 2001, ISBN 3-89446-311-2.
- Hessian Landesvermessungsamt: TF 20-2, Northern Front Odenwald. Topographic Recreation Map 1:20,000. Hessian Land Survey Office, Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 3-89446-300-7.
- Károly Henrich: The Odenwald Felsenmeer and the " forgotten" nature reserve Felsberg, (PDF), COBRA, Kassel 2008 ( 6.30 MB )
- Klaus Fahlbusch, Werner Jorns, Gudrun Loewe, Josef Röder: The rock mountain in the Odenwald. With archaeological and geological contributions on the origins of rock oceans and the technique of Roman granite industry. ( Guide to the Hessian of Prehistory and Early History 3 ) Theiss, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-8062-0792-5.