Owl pass

Owl Pass / Soví sedlo / Przełęcz Sowia
View of the Owl Pass and the Schwarze Koppe from the east
Compass direction	North	south
Pass height	1164  m nm
	Lower Silesia ( Poland )	Královéhradecký kraj ( Czech Republic )
Watershed	Płomnica → Łomniczka → Łomnica → Bober → Oder → Stettiner Haff	Soví potok → Kleine Aupa → Aupa → Elbe → North Sea
Valley locations	Wilcza Poręba (Karpacz)	Horni Malá Úpa
expansion	Footpath	Forest / footpath
Mountains	Giant Mountains
profile
Ø pitch	18.4% (516 m / 2.8 km)	7.8% (180 m / 2.3 km)
map
Coordinates	50 ° 44 '45 "  N , 15 ° 47' 13"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 44 '45 "  N , 15 ° 47' 13"  E

The Owl Pass is a mountain pass in the eastern Giant Mountains. It connects the Polish Wilcza Poręba (German: Wolfshau ), a southern district of Karpacz (de: Krummhübel ) with Malá Úpa (de: Kleinaupa ) in the Czech Republic .

location

The pass on the saddle between the Schwarzen Koppe (Polish: Czarna Kopa , Czech: Svorova hora ) or its pre-summit Mittelberg (pl: Średnia Kopa , 1230 m) in the west and the Tafelstein (pl: Skalny Stół , cs: Tabule ) in the east is hardly noticeable with its gentle slopes in the area. Only the north-west slope towards the Eulengrund (pl: Sowia Dolina , cs: Soví dolina ) has a greater, sometimes steep, steepness. There are boundaries here in several ways. On the main ridge of the mountain range, a border between two areas of political influence has run almost unchanged since 1526.

geology

Along the rock break lines in the area of ​​the saddle, the erosion led to the deeply carved valley of the Plagnitz (pl: Płomnica ) in the north and the Eulenbach valley (cs: Soví potok ), which runs less prominently in a southerly direction. The valleys thus form a geological boundary that separates the eastern main ridge of the Giant Mountains from the Schmiedeberger ridge . The latter is a remnant of the eastern metamorphic rock shell of the granite intrusion that gave rise to the Giant Mountains. This shell consists mainly of gneiss , mica slate , green slate , which is traversed by numerous veins of pegmatite , aplite and quartzite .

Hydrology

A mountain pass always represents a watershed, as here between the Elbe and Oder river systems . Another boundary line has been found: while the water flows into the Plagnitz on the north slope of the North Sea, the wet element in the Soví potok on the south side finds its way into the Baltic Sea.

Names

The name of the top of the pass is derived both in Czech with Soví sedlo and in Polish with Przełęcz Sowia from the name given by the German settlers. At that time, other names were common and so the term “Schwarzen Drehe”, “Fichtiglehne” or “Fichtig” for short was used when referring to the entire, wooded and therefore dark saddle from the valley.

Forest is also eponymous for the middle name of the Schmiedeberger ridge, which was known as the forest ridge. The Czech name for this area is Lesní hřeben (translated forest ridge ), in Polish it is called after the town of Kowary Kowarski Grzbiet or Střecha (= roof ). The summit ridge leading from the pass to the west was also referred to as the giant ridge as far as the Schneekoppe; this has its equivalent in the Czech Obří Hřeben , but not in the Polish Czarny Grzbiet , which might be misleadingly translated as the Black Ridge . In fact, the Polish name refers to the color (czarna = black) of the mica slate, from which the mountain ridge is mainly built, and not to the dark forest.

history

The area has been known for its rich gemstone and metal deposits since the 14th century and the last mining work was carried out in Eulengrund in the 1950s. The economic importance of the pass probably applied not only to the local smugglers, who shifted heavy loads between two different markets on their Kraxen after Silesia was separated from Austria in 1748 and annexed by Prussia .

Before the two neighboring countries joined the Schengen Agreement , a tourist border crossing for pedestrians and skiers was set up here, as in four other places in the Giant Mountains.
In the summer half-year (April 1 to September 30) the times for crossing the border were set at 8 am to 8 pm, during the winter half-year (October 1 to March 31) at 9 am to 4 pm.

Tourism and nature protection

The pass is located in the area of ​​the Karkonoski Park Narodowy (KPN) in Poland and in the Czech Republic in the Krkonošský národní park (KRNAP), so the paved paths must not be left.

The hiking trails are marked in color:

Bishop Josef Doubrava around 1912

▬	Marked in red, the path of Polish-Czech friendship runs along the ridge. This binational hiking trail is called Cesta česko-polského přátelství by the Czechs and is called Droga Przyjaźni Polsko-Czeskiej by the Poles. Coming from the Reifträger (pl: Szrenica , cs: Jínonoš ) in the west, it connects most of the peaks along the main ridge of the Giant Mountains and, shortly after this point, branches off to the east, down to the border buildings on the border pass (pl: Przełęcz Okraj ), where it has its eastern end.
▬	Marked in blue, the other branch leads in a north-easterly direction following the state border up to the table stone.
▬	Signposted in black, it goes steeply down the north side through the Eulengrund to Wolfshau.
✘	Opposite, on the south side, an unmarked forest path runs down through the Löwengrund (cs: Lví důl ) to Kleinaupa. It is the Bischof-Doubrava-Steig (cs: Chodník biskupa Doubravy ), which is named after the former Bishop of Königgrätz Josef Doubrava (1852-1921). He was an enthusiastic tourist and hiked the ridges of the Giant Mountains in official clothing. The construction of the path was commissioned by Countess Aloisia von Czernin-Morzin in 1885 and was long known as the “Front Lion Path” (cs: Přední Lví cesta ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tectonic phenomena in Sowia Dolina. Retrieved February 16, 2018 .  (English)
2. ↑ The forest ridge. Retrieved February 16, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Karpacz onLINE ( Memento from August 6, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ Giant Mountains Season 2010, Issue No. 11. Accessed on February 16, 2018 . 
5. ^ Border regime ( Memento of April 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ VESELÝ VÝLET, issue 32, summer 2009, page 5. Accessed on February 16, 2018 .  PDF (2.3 MB)