Kahleberg

View from Geisingberg on the Bald Mountain, with its distinctive block stockpile below the summit, in the foreground you can see the Altenberg Ping for

The Bald Mountain, 905 meters above sea level. NN, is the third highest peak in the Eastern Ore Mountains and also the highest mountain in the Saxon part of this mountain part.

Location

The Bald mountain lies two kilometers southwest of the mining town of Altenberg / Erzgeb. near the border with the Czech Republic. At the top is the little Bald Mountain cottage ( shelter ). Just south of the mountain is home to the National Training Centre for biathlon, today: Biathlon Sparkassenarena, north lie the rehab clinic Raupennest as well as the originally applied for mining ponds of the small and the great gallows pond and the memory Altenberg.

Geology and morphology

The Bald Mountain is a wooded quartz porphyry ridge which forms one side of the comb Erzgebirgskamms. In the landscape of the mountain breaks with a striking stage to the north and west from back. The demolition flanks are covered with precious boulders that form a 3 -acre area natural monument.

History

When station No. 9 Bald Mountain, the summit was a stop first order of the royal Saxon triangulation in the 1860s. For this reason, has been built on the summit of a measurement column. In addition, there was also a five meter high stone tower, which was used as a lookout tower since the late 19th century. It was demolished in 1976 due to disrepair. From 1954 to 1966 stood on the summit of a 25 meter high wooden fire watch tower.

Origin of the name

Originally the Bald mountain was thickly wooded. However, the onset in 1440 in Altenberg intensive tin mining resulted probably in the second half of the 16th century to complete deforestation of large areas of forest that were needed as mine timber, for fire setting and for the smelting of ore ( charcoal). The lack of forest coined the name of the bald mountain.

Forest damage

The first forest damage called the Altenberg Zinnhütten out in the 16th century. Your sulfur-rich gases prevented for a long time a natural reforestation of deforested mountain. The planted since the 19th century spruce trees were destroyed since the 1970s, above all by the exhaust emissions of the North Bohemian brown coal power plants. The pollutants were also known weather spruce largely to the victim. In the 1990s, the air quality has improved significantly, today's stocks are formed by various planted conifers, mountain pine and rowan and birch.

Conservation

The Bald Mountain is the only area in the Saxon Erzgebirge, can grow on the book free under natural conditions spruce forests. These semi-natural forests were protected in a 63 acre nature reserve since 1961. However, the protective position could not prevent the destruction due to forest damages, so the nature reserve was disbanded in 1983.

In the area of the heap block (area natural monument ), there are numerous worthy of protection lichens, including the map lichen, umbilical and bowl lichen and shrub lichen as the reindeer and Icelandic moss.

Approximately 22 acres of the mountain are as FFH Kahleberg at Altenberg under protection.

View

The view extends to the north over much of the eastern Ore Mountains down to the Elbe Valley in Dresden. In exceptionally good eye wanders in the east to the crest of the Jizera Mountains. The more than 100 km away, Snow Mountain in the Krkonoše Mountains can be seen under good conditions. A metal panel indicates the most salient goals. However, it contains an error. The north and the east direction are not to each other at an angle of 90 °, but at an acute angle.

Way to the summit

• A climb to the Bald Mountain is possible via a variety of marked hiking trails, biking trails and ski trails.
• Best starting point for visiting the mountain is Altenberg. From there the trail marked in blue on the broad Altenzaun houses way to the mountain shoulder and on to the summit.
• The mountain is also on the route of the European long-distance hiking trail E3, the International Mountain trail Eisenach- Budapest, the blue-marked hiking trail Zittau - Wernigerode and the cross-country highway Erzgebirge / Ore Mountains.