Dragon Canyon
The Drachenschlucht is a gorge near Eisenach in the Thuringian Forest in the nature reserve " Forests with gorges between Wartburg and Hohe Sonne ".
location
The gorge is located in the south of Eisenach, between the southern outskirts (Hotel Sophienaue) and the forest village Hohe Sonne on the Rennsteig . There is the Annatal, the southern end of the Mariental . The Drachenschlucht and the neighboring Landgrafenschlucht to the east and the Ludwigsklamm rising out of the Johannistal are popular hiking destinations, especially in the summer months. The southern access is on the Hohe Sonne, the northern access is on the driveway to the Waldhaus Sängerwiese. The B 19 runs parallel to the gorge from Eisenach towards Gumpelstadt and Meiningen . There are parking spaces for hikers at both main entrances. For safety reasons, additional paths have been laid out to enable people to leave the gorge quickly in the event of storms or accidents.
description
The gorge, about 3 kilometers long and only 68 centimeters wide at its narrowest point, is divided into the following sections:
| section | comment |
|---|---|
| 0 m |
Parking lot at Königstein , driveway to Waldhaus Sängerwiese - ( 261.3 m above sea level ) |
| 160 m | At the ox pond , carved dragon portal and information boards |
| 720 m | 10 m high rock face with monogram A for Annatal; Exit via the 1st side gorge (right) to the Knöpfelsbach and Waldhaus Sängerwiese ; Refuge at the beginning / end of the now following passage |
| 725 m | 198 m long passage with numerous bottlenecks, whirlpool niches, erosion basins and trickle waterfalls |
| 1030 m | Exit via the 2nd side gorge (right) to Töpfchensborn |
| 1720 m | Exit via 3rd side gorge (right) into the Veilchenberge |
| 1915 m | Shorter passage with 2nd rock narrow |
| 2475 m | Shorter passage with 3rd rock narrow |
| 2790 m | Marienbachquelle - ( 395 m above sea level ) |
| 3015 m | South access via stairs at the Hohe Sonne - information boards ( 430 m above sea level ) |
history
In the Middle Ages, the upper Mariental was a refuge for hunters, charcoal burners and mineral seekers. For the ducal court, the construction of promenades and hunting aisles had already begun in the 18th century on the forest section to the south between the Hohe Sonne hunting lodge and Wilhelmsthal palace - the field names Schwalbennest for a rest area, high forest grotto, Luisengrotte and Prinzessinnenstieg are reminiscent of this. When the first excursion restaurant - the Fantasy - was built in Mariental in 1830, still far from the city, the opening of the rocky gorges south of the city for hikers and walkers was initiated. At the same time, Gottlob König , Carl Grebe and Herrmann Stoetzer aimed to make the forests usable and open up , and funds for forest and path construction were made available for this purpose.
In 1832, the part of the Annathal, then known as the Steingraben , was made passable for walkers and was given the popular artificial name Drachenschlucht as a new tourist attraction . This name comes from the patron saint of Eisenach, St. George the dragon slayer . The Georgenkirche was mentioned in a document as early as 1196, and since 1549 there has been a Georgsbrunnen on the Eisenach market . In the local variation of the hagiography, the Hanjörg fights a lindworm , to which the modern Hanjörg Festival also refers. This lindworm would have lived in the narrow and wet gorge of the Dragon Gorge .
Until 1850 the area belonged to the ducal administration, was a game ban and a hunting area. In the second half of the 19th century, the Mariental developed into a villa colony and a recreation area for the Eisenach people. The Hotel Sophienaue was built in 1879, and in 1897 the tram line was laid to the entrance of the Drachenschlucht.
In order to make the gorge safe and accessible, paths and steps had to be carved into the rock; the path was continued over many meters with wooden planks and footbridges over the source stream. Unfortunately, the forces of nature - the ice masses that form in the gorge in winter and the floods that occur during storms - destroy these parts of the path, so that new replacement structures are always necessary. In the 2009 season, gratings made of robust plastic were installed and tested.
natural reserve
In 1961 the forest area between Hohe Sonne and Wartburg was designated as a nature reserve " Wartburg - Hohe Sonne ", in 1977 the Drachenschlucht, Landgrafenschlucht and some nearby grottos were also placed under protection as geological natural monuments . The forms of erosion are considered to be one of the greatest geological and morphological sights in the region. Against this background, the nature reserve was expanded to 788 hectares and redesignated in 2015 under the name "Forests with gorges between Wartburg and Hohe Sonne". Some of the areas are total reserves . The BUND , district association Wartburgkreis (with the city of Eisenach), designated the Drachenschlucht as biotope of the month January 2001 .
Flora and fauna of the Dragon Gorge
The main company in Eisenacher Rotliegend is the acidic oak-beech forest. The Dragon Gorge is a special form - the gorge forest . Mosses, small ferns, rock snails and copepods are particularly common in the depths of the cool, damp gorge. The well liver moss covers the rocks, star mosses colonize the drainage channels of the water, various potted ferns such as worm fern , thorny shield fern and fragile bladder fern form separate stocks. Rare and highly specialized species of crustaceans and snails can be found in the moss cushions. The area is also the habitat of fire salamanders , toads and small rodents such as the water shrew .
literature
- Heinrich Weigel: The nature trail »Dr. Thank God König "near Eisenach. ( Eisenacher Hefte , No. 3). Eisenacher Bild- und Schriftverlag, Eisenach 1993, DNB 947469737 .
See also
Web links
Notes and sources
- ↑ Official topographic maps of Thuringia 1: 10,000. Wartburgkreis, district of Gotha, district-free city of Eisenach . In: Thuringian Land Survey Office (Hrsg.): CD-ROM series Top10 . CD 2. Erfurt 1999.
- ↑ These escape routes can also be used as normal shortcuts and hiking trails; they connect the gorge with a forest road a few 100 meters to the west across Knöpfel ponds and Veilchenberge to the Hohe Sonne.
- ^ Rainer Hohberg: From dragons, witches and enchanted souls Sutton Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3954000074 , p. 100
- ↑ Information on the nature reserve "Forests with gorges between Wartburg and Hohe Sonne" on the website of the city of Eisenach; accessed on May 7, 2017
- ↑ NN: The Dragon Gorge. Biotope of the Month - January 2001 . In: MFB Verlagsgesellschaft Eisenach (ed.): StadtZeit. City journal with information from the Wartburg district. February issue. Druck- und Verlagshaus Frisch, Eisenach 2001, p. 39-41 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 44 ″ N , 10 ° 18 ′ 29 ″ E