Fichtel Mountains

The Chain of Mountains Fichtelgebirge

Webcams:

Kösseine

Kornberg S

Kornberg SW

Kornberg W

Ochsenkopf

The range is located in Germany at the north-east corner of Bavaria, in Upper Franconia.
It is arranged like a horseshoe around an inner hill-landscape where Marktleuthen lies.
The highest mountain is the "Schneeberg (Snow Mountain)" with 1053 m above sealevel.

The mountain next to Marktleuthen is the "Kornberg" with a height of 827 m above sealevel. You can reach it by feet within about two or three hours. By car you can reach a restaurant called "Vorsuchhuette" in half-height via Großwendern and Spielberg. From here within a quarter or half hour you can go to summit where is located an outlook-tower called "Schoenburgwarte".

The "Schoenburgwarte" is already the 3rd tower here and its foundation-stone was layed in 1939. Because of the war the construction works delayed so it was completed only in 1954.

Four rivers have its sources here and each one flows in one quarter direction:

The Main west to the "Rhein",
the Naab south to the "Donau",
the Saale north to the "Elbe",
the Eger has its source at the northern slope of the mountain "Schneeberg",
flows through the "Weissenstadt Lake"
and the towns Roeslau, Marktleuthen and Hohenberg
where it leaves Germany into the Czech Republic.
There it gave the town Eger (now Cheb) its name.
At Leitmeritz (now Litomerice) the Eger flows into the river Elbe.

The flower " Siebenstern (seven-star)"
is the symbol of the Fichtelgebirge
and you can find it still frequently in our spruce-woods.

The Fichtelgebirgslied (Song Of The Fichtelgebirge)
was texted and composed by the teacher Isaak Eckardt in 1897.

Sheet Of Music

listen

Ruin Of The Castle Epprechtstein

About 5 km west of Marktleuthen, 797 m above sealevel there is a castle, built about 1200 A.D. by the gentlemen of Eckebretsteine. At the beginning of the 14th century it degenerated to a nest of robber-knights and therefore it was conquered in 1352 by troops of the Count of Nuernberg (Nuremberg) and destroyed in 1553 by Heinrich from Plauen. Since that time there are only standing the exterior walls. From an observation pulpit you can have a wide view over our homeland.

Castle Thierstein

The castle was built between 1310 and 1343 A.D. and belonged at that time "Albrecht Nothaft from Tyerstein" who acquired Marktleuthen, too, which was named at that time "Leuken". In a war in 1553 it was destroyed for the most part.
Today there are preserved the exterior walls and the tower which you can ascend on winding stairs and it presents a wide view to the environs.

Hohenberg

Here you can see the only completely preserved castle of the Fichtelgebirge. It is located about 15 km east of Marktleuthen next to the Czechian border and was mentioned in a record first in 1222. Often there were destroyed parts by fire and war, also in the World War II, but all were rebuilt. It is good preserved in our days and worth a visit in any case. From the castle-tower you can have a wide view to the Czechian Eger valley.

German Porcelain Museum in Hohenberg

It contains a comprehensive collection of art and useful porcelain from diffenrent times and shows the process of production. There is available a room for painting-courses, a library and an archive, additionally a restorer.

European Industrial Museum in Selb-Ploessberg

The museum gives a view of the production of porcelain within the last 300 years. Working places and machines show obviously the process of production. Additionally there is a permanent exhibition of technical keramics.
Detailed informations and photos of the porcelain and the industrial museum you can find here: www.dt-porzellanmuseum.de

Wunsiedel

The Capital City of our district is located about 12 km south of Marktleuthen. In its famous open-air nature theatre there is disposed every year in summer the Luisenburg Festival.

Every year in June Wunsiedel celebrates the Fountain Festival. All fountains in the town are skillful decorated with flowers and candles and because of its unique feeling it's worth a visit anyway.

Moreover in Wunsiedel there is the Fichtelgebirge Museum, our homeland museum with historic exhibits and a noteworthy collection of minerals.

Near the evangelical church there is located the house of birth
of the most famous child of Wunsiedel, the poet Jean-Paul.

The Mountain Koesseine

is the highest point of the range south of Wunsiedel. It has a characteristic double-summit and there's a good outlook to the inner Fichtelgebirge in the north, to the Ochsenkopf and Schneeberg in the west and the Steinwald (Stonewood) in the south.

Koesseine, outlook to Ochsenkopf and Schneeberg

Weissenstadt

The Weissenstadt Lake is meeting point of yachtsmen and surfers. From the mountain Waldstein nearby you can have a fantastic look araound.

The Mountain Ochsenkopf

The "Asenturm" (Asen Tower), an outlook-tower with a restaurant on the Ochsenkopf (Ox Head), the second in height mountain of the Fichtelgebirge and 1024 m above sealevel. There are two chair-lifts to the summit, one from Bischofsgruen in the north and one from Fleckl in the south.

Please visit also the other themes of my Panoptikum:

Home	Optical Illusions, Curiosities		( ) = German Language Only	Egypt	(Israel/Palestine)
Nature Photography		Fascinating Pictures, Partly Animated		(South India and Sri Lanka)
Our Solarsystem		(The Celts - not a race, not a nation)		(Greece)	(Spain)
(Fotos-Reiseberichte.de)		(The Lord of the Rings)		(Cote d'Azur)	(California)
Murphy's Law		(Franconian Lakes)		(Portugal)	(Gibraltar)
About Me	Imprint	(Books)	My Hometown	My Homeland	(Czechoslovakia)