Lusatian Mountains

Lusatian Mountains
	View over the Lusatian Mountains near Ringelshain
Highest peak	Listen (Luž) ( 793 m nm )
location	Czech Republic , Germany
part of	West Sudetes
Coordinates	50 ° 51 ' N , 14 ° 39' E Coordinates: 50 ° 51 ' N , 14 ° 39' E

The Lusatian Mountains ( Lužické hory in Czech ) are located in south-east Saxony and in northern Bohemia ( Czech Republic ) between Bohemian Switzerland and the Jeschken Mountains . The German part forms the Zittau Mountains . To the north, the hilly landscape of the Lusatian highlands spreads out. The Bohemian Central Uplands adjoin directly to the southwest .

The area is under nature protection in the Czech Republic as ChKO Lužické hory . The Zittau Mountains have the status of a landscape protection area and were designated as a nature park in 2007 .

geology

The Lusatian Mountains form part of the West Sudetes and are covered with younger sandstone layers that rest on a Precambrian crystalline base . Volcanic magmas broke through this sandstone slab in the Tertiary and solidified into basalt and phonolite (Klingstein). In the contact area between these magmas and the sandstone, the latter was fritted, baked or shaped into small columns in some places. The Jonsdorf millstones , which were made of such solidified sandstone, were once widely known . On the northern edge of the Lusatian Mountains, the most important geological fault zone is the Lusatian Fault , which separates the granodiorite of Lusatia from the sandstone of Bohemia .

Location and extent of the Lusatian Mountains
The Lusatian Mountains within the geomorphological division of the Czech Republic
Basalt columns on Zlatý vrch (Goldberg)

Topographic description

The Lusatian Mountains are one of the Bohemian peripheral mountains that surround the country like a wall. With the Lausche (Luž) , 793 m nm , the Finkenkoppe (Pěnkavčí vrch) , 792 m nm , the Hochwald (Hvozd) , 750 m nm , and the Kaltenberg (Studenec) , 736 m nm as the western cornerstone are the highest mountains of the Ridge line of the mountains. Tannenberg (Jedlová) , 774 m nm , and the striking Kleis (Klíč) , 760 m nm , are located in front of this ridge to the south and impress with their massive appearance. The rugged shapes of these mountains show that they consist exclusively of volcanic rocks. Only at the foot of these mountains do the sandstone cliffs spread out, which define the landscape in Jonsdorf and Oybin. The largest rocks are the Oybin (with medieval castle and monastery ruins), the rose stones, the chalice and beehive stones, the Scharfenstein , the Mönchswand, the rocks in the Felsengasse and at the potter near Oybin and the nuns rocks near Jonsdorf on the Saxon side and the Rocks in the Bürgstein-Schwoikaer Switzerland , Rabensteine and Oberwegsteine on the Bohemian side.

The entire mountain range is covered with forests, with beech forests dominating on basalt and phonolite , while pine and spruce can be found on sandstone . Since ancient times, only a few traffic routes have crossed the mountains. Important streets in the Middle Ages were the Alte Prager Strasse over the Schöbersattel (Stožecké sedlo) and the Alte Gabler Strasse over Lückendorf . The former still serves today as an important trunk road between Lusatia and Prague . The railway line between Prague and Jiříkov (Georgswalde) / Ebersbach , built as the Bohemian Northern Railway , is now only used for regional traffic, it crosses the mountains in the deepest saddle at the foot of the Tannenberg.

natural reserve

Parkland, below Duty Kamen

Park landscape, view of the Ortel

The Czech part of the Lusatian Mountains has been under landscape protection as Chráněná krajinná oblast Lužické hory since 1976 . The management of the protected area is located in Jablonné v Podještědí (German fork) . Particularly valuable landscape areas of the Lusatian Mountains are also subject to special state protection as nature reserves (PR) or national nature reserves (NPR) as well as natural monuments (PP) and national natural monuments (NPP).