Wachtküppel

The Wachtküppel from north

The Wachtküppel - even scamp or rascal called the Rhön - is 705 m above sea level. NN -high mountain in the Rhön in Hesse ( Germany ).

Geographical location

The Wachtküppel rises within the county Fulda Fulda valley on the edge of the Rhön Nature Reserve or the Rhön Biosphere Reserve. In the Kuppenrhön he lies in the district of the municipality of Bach Maier Gersfeld. Poppenhausen ( Wasserkuppe) is located 2.5 km north-west and 3 km southeast Gersfeld.

Mountain Description

The rocky summit overlooks the surrounding hills only a few meters. He is to climb on a footpath and offers through its exposed location excellent views in all four directions.

The hilltop is the remnant of a volcanic chimney. The rock contains as much magnetic iron that magnetic compasses on the Wachtküppel show no clear direction more.

A few hundred meters away is an old quarry, which was developed and used in the 1970s and 1980s as a grill and hard place. Once this has been prohibited from natutschutzrechtlichen reasons he is now back covered in the course of succession with bushes and young trees.

At the foot of Wachtküppels is a geological trail, starting in the parking lot nearby.

History

The Wachtküppel was once a outworked sentry to those Ebersberg Ebersberg on. Some remains of the system are still to be found.

In ancient archives of the striking hill also appears as a "play - or Pfaff mountain".

By the year 1870 stood on the summit already a cross, later a flagpole, at the one on special occasions in the imperial period, the black -white- red flag hoisted. A new cross in memory of the dead of both world wars had " mountain Kaplan " Hermann Mott build 1951. It bore the inscription:

The fallen Beloved rests in a foreign country. Here is for you and for us the tape. That connects us, near and far. The character of Christ, build our Lord. Transfigured with him we rise again. United with Him see the eternal homeland. May 3, 1951

This inscription is also found on the cross again, which was rebuilt on April 25, 1989, after the previous one was destroyed by lightning.

Wendelinus Chapel

The first chapel on the Wachtküppel was called the chapel where the priest Hermann Mott celebrated the first Mass in August 1944. Pope Pius XII. had given permission for the construction of the chapel. Just one year later, this was too small. Then they built a shack in the Reich Labor Service Abtsroda off and on Wachtküppel than Barack chapel again. This was inaugurated on October 20, 1946 by the Fulda General and dedicated to St. Wendelin. Since 20 October 1947 it a relic of the holy Wendelinus is kept, which had been procured from the St. Wendel, Saarland. In the early 1960s this Barack chapel was too small again. Then today Wendelinus chapel was built in 1962 and inaugurated in 1964. At the chapel has a bell tower with three bells. 1971 a memorial stone for the Kaplan Hermann Mott ( 1906-1968 ) was erected at the Chapel, the sculptor John Cherry has made ​​.