Mount of Olives (Odenwald)

Mount of Olives
View of the Mount of Olives from the west, the quarry is also clearly visible
height	449.3  m above sea level NHN
location	Schriesheim / Dossenheim , Baden-Württemberg ( Germany )
Mountains	Odenwald
Coordinates	49 ° 28 '3 "  N , 8 ° 40' 50"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 28 '3 "  N , 8 ° 40' 50"  E

Schriesheim quarry

The Mount of Olives is 449.3  m above sea level. NHN high mountain in the Odenwald southeast of the city of Schriesheim .

geography

The Mount of Olives is located on the western edge of the Odenwald above the Bergstrasse and the Upper Rhine Plain . In the east, beyond the Geisenbach, the Wendenkopf ( 359.6  m ) joins, in the southeast of the Hartenbühl ( 473  m ) and in the south the mountain reaches up to the community of Dossenheim . In the north lies the Hohe Waid ( 458.3  m ), beyond the steeply cut Schriesheim valley, through which the Kanzelbach flows westward .

Porphyry used to be quarries on the slopes of the Mount of Olives . Above all, the yellowish quarry walls of the Schriesheim quarry, which can be seen from afar in the Rhine plain, shape the image of the mountain today.

On the middle and lower western slopes there are mostly grapevines , the rest of the Mount of Olives is mostly forested.

history

On the northwestern flank of the Mount of Olives, the Strahlenburg lies on a mountain spur between the Geisenbach valley and the Rhine plain. The once important castle, now partially destroyed, houses a restaurant. Further up the spur ridge are the Swedish pulpit and the remains of old Celtic ramparts, some of which have fallen victim to the quarry industry.

The Schauenburg lies on the southern foothills of the next larger valley on the Rhine plain . Today it is only preserved as a ruin .

Porphyry was mined on the Mount of Olives for the first time in the 1880s . The small break on the Odenwald side of the Mount of Olives operated by the city of Schriesheim for this purpose, however, could not be economically established because the transport routes were too long. The large-scale dismantling did not begin until 1891 at the so-called Schlossbruch in Dossenheim. Work in the Schriesheim quarry , the last mining site still in operation on the Mount of Olives, ended in 1967.

sport and freetime

Today there are countless climbing routes in the disused quarry, and the area is one of the most important sport climbing areas in the region. South of the crest on the slope of the Mount of Olives there is also a take-off point for paragliders and hang-gliders . ( Location ) Landing is usually in front of the Mount of Olives, about a kilometer further southwest.

nature

The top of the Mount of Olives originally carried the gemstones , a collection of columnar rocks made of porphyry, which were also designated as natural monuments. Nevertheless, they were destroyed during blasting work in the quarry. As a result, however, the mountain silhouette was placed under protection.

A 51.5 hectare nature reserve (protected area number 2212) has been designated on the Mount of Olives by ordinance of the Karlsruhe regional council since February 10, 1998 . The protection purpose is the preservation as the dominant ridge of the front Odenwald in its current form, which is characterized on the western flank of the elongated, wooded mountain range by several stone terraces and rock walls rising up to the ridge line and giving insights into the geological course of the volcanically formed quartz porphyry, as well the protection of the near-natural and culture-related forest, bush and fringing communities of the Mount of Olives in different stages of development and local characteristics as a habitat for numerous threatened animal and plant species. The forest area on the mountain is classified as a protected forest.

literature

• Hermann Brunn: 1200 years of Schriesheim . Südwestdeutsche Verlagsanstalt, Mannheim, 1964.
• Dirk Hecht: The history of the city of Schriesheim. From the ice age to today . Regional culture publishing house, Ubstadt-Weiher, 2014, ISBN 978-3897358089 .
• District Office for Nature Conservation and Landscape Management Karlsruhe (Ed.): The nature reserves in the administrative district of Karlsruhe . Thorbecke, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-7995-5172-7

Web links

Commons : Mount of Olives Nature Reserve  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The Mount of Olives in its surroundings on a map section of the State Agency for the Environment Baden-Württemberg (LUBW) ( information )
• Profile of the nature reserve in the LUBW's list of protected areas

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
2. ^ Entry (quarry) at the Ministry for the Environment, Climate and Energy, Baden-Württemberg
3. ↑ ^{a b} Brunn 1964, pp. 278-279.
4. ↑ ^{a b} leaflet from the city of Schriesheim on the quarry and mount of olives (pdf)