Piesau (river)

Piesau
Piesau river valley with viaduct to Wallendorf (Lichte)
Data
Water code	DE : 563242
location	Thuringia , Germany
River system	Elbe
Drain over	Lichte (river)  → Schwarza (Saale)  → Saale  → Elbe  → North Sea
source	Rennsteig south of Piesau 50 ° 30 ′ 8 ″  N , 11 ° 13 ′ 9 ″  E
Source height	approx.  750.9  m above sea level NN
muzzle	Light (river) coordinates: 50 ° 31 ′ 34 "  N , 11 ° 11 ′ 34"  E 50 ° 31 ′ 34 "  N , 11 ° 11 ′ 34"  E
Mouth height	approx.  569.6  m above sea level NN
Height difference	approx. 181.3 m
Bottom slope	approx. 26 ‰
length	7 km
Catchment area	25 km²
Left tributaries	Kupfertalbach
Right tributaries	Bärenbach, Kulmbach, Taubenbach
Communities	Piesau, Lichte (districts Bock-und-Teich and Wallendorf)

The Piesau is an approx. 7 km long right tributary of the Lichte in the Thuringian Forest / Thuringian Slate Mountains Nature Park .

source

The source of the Piesau is located a few kilometers south of Piesau in the immediate vicinity of the Rennsteig of the watershed between Thuringia and Franconia .

Course and mouth

The Piesau rises first as Piesau Kieselbach and takes its way through the Thuringian Forest Nature Park north to Piesau. There it joins the Bärenbach ( ⊙ ) and now flows as Piesau further north to the Piesauknie ( ⊙ ) at the eastern entrance to Bock and Teich , a district of Neuhaus am Rennweg .

Then it changes its course to the west. There the B 281 follows the Piesau river valley. After about 2 km it flows through the Piesau Viaduct to Wallendorf ( ⊙ ) near the former Lichte station (east) . In the center of Lichte , the Piesau flows into the Lichte river and follows the Lichtetal to the Leibis-Lichte dam with the Deesbach dam to the confluence with the Schwarza .

Naming

According to ancient traditions, the river used to be called the Schmiedebach . This is the lower reaches of what is now the Bock-und-Teich district (Lichte). The current name of the river Piesau only appears after Piesau was founded in 1627, derived from the founder's name Pisa .

Specialty

The mountain slopes of the Piesau and Lichte valleys drop steeply and are often more than 100 m high.

Piesau, Licht and the numerous tributaries from the surrounding side valleys have been known for centuries for their deposits of gold soap and are among the rivers with the most gold in Germany. Hobby gold prospectors are still occasionally successful today.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Georg Brückner: Regional studies of the Duchy of Meiningen. Second part: (The topography of the country). Brückner and Renner, Meiningen 1853, p. 592 .
2. ↑ Rich. Christian Kreibich: Gold panning.