Luisenburg rock labyrinth

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Goethefelsen

The Luisenburg rock labyrinth is a sea ​​of ​​rocks made of granite blocks with dimensions of several meters and part of the Great Labyrinth nature reserve near Wunsiedel . For a long time, catastrophic events such as B. Earthquake assumed. Today we know that it is the weathering and erosion processes that last over geological time that are responsible for the formation of the rock labyrinth.

Goethe recognized this when he wrote in 1820:

“The enormous size of the granite masses, which have fallen over each other without a trace of order or direction, gives a sight the like of which I have never seen again on any of my hikes, and nobody is to blame for the chaotic conditions that arouse astonishment, horror and horror to explain, floods and downpours, storms and earthquakes, volcanoes, and whatever else may violently excite nature, here calls for help. On closer inspection, however, and with a thorough knowledge of what nature, calmly and slowly acting, can also do extraordinary things, we were presented with a solution to this riddle (...) "

The well-rounded shapes of the individual blocks resulted from the weathering of wool sacks in the tropical, warm, humid climate of the Tertiary . Due to erosion, they were dissected out over time, their position became unstable and began to shift. This resulted in the wildly romantic paths through narrow crevices and steep stairs.

Development

Sham ruin (there was never a house there) above Prinz-Ludwig-Platz

The Blockmeer, named after Queen Luise , has been open to tourists since the 18th century and is also known today for the natural stage framed by the rocks and the annual Luisenburg Festival there .

The idea of ​​opening up was noticeably influenced by the "Society for the Enlightenment of Patriotic History, Customs and Rights", which was founded in Wunsiedel in 1784. Around 1790 citizens of the place started to design the rock area as a landscape garden. The first expansion phase lasted until around 1800 and brought the name “Luxburg” in memory of the Lugsburg castle stalls . Visitors to the facility had to bend down or even crawl if they wanted to explore the natural beauty. For the aristocrats of that time, these were rare postures that developed an additional attraction for some. The Prussian Queen visited with her husband Friedrich Wilhelm III. 1805 the original natural wonder and enthusiastically told her son about this experience. A second expansion phase began between 1811 and 1815. The Luisenburg thus developed into a gem of bourgeois culture and landscape architecture.

The area was used in 1794 for the performance of the Singspiel Die kleine Ährenleserin by Johann Adam Hiller and Christian Felix Weisse .

today

The rock labyrinth is a popular destination and can be explored with sturdy shoes. Children also enjoy crawling and climbing. In 2002 the rock labyrinth was awarded the official seal of approval “ Bavaria's most beautiful geotopes ” by the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment . In 2006 it was included in the list of 77 awarded national geotopes in Germany.

The granite block field is designated as a particularly valuable geotope by the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (Geotope number: 479R011).

The facility is looked after and maintained by the city administration of Wunsiedel (city forester). This charges an entrance fee for the rock labyrinth, which is used for the care and preservation of the natural monument.

literature

  • Karl Braun: Luisenburg. A forgotten landscape garden of early romanticism . Jonas, Marburg 2005, ISBN 3-89445-349-4 .
  • Hans Vollet and Kathrin Heckel: The ruins drawings by the Plassenburg cartographer Johann Christoph Stierlein . 1987.
  • Nicola Clearly: The Luisenburg - a middle-class landscape garden without a castle . Diploma thesis at the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Bernburg, Wunsiedel, 2003.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bavarian State Office for the Environment: Clear the stage! Luisenburg rock labyrinth! Big stake . In: Hundred Masterpieces - The Most Beautiful Geotopes of Bavaria , Augsburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-936385-89-2 , pp. 64f.
  2. ↑ Ulrich Lagally: Wilde Blocks and GOETHE in the middle - The Luisenburg rock labyrinth in Wunsiedel in the Fichtel Mountains . In: Ernst-Rüdiger Look, Ludger Feldmann (Ed.): Fascination Geology. The important geotopes of Germany , E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-510-65219-3 , p. 156f.
  3. ↑ Bavarian State Office for the Environment, Geotope rock labyrinth Luisenburg SSW von Wunsiedel (accessed on October 15, 2017).

Web links

Commons : Luisenburg rock labyrinth  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 0 ′ 43.5 ″  N , 11 ° 59 ′ 31.5 ″  E