Langbrunnen Welschensteinach 01 Kandelhöhenweg

The Central Black Forest (german: Mittlerer Schwarzwald), also called the Middle Black Forest, is a natural or cultural division of the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and S ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

in Germany. It generally refers to a region of deeply incised valleys from the

Rench The Rench is a right-hand tributary of the Rhine in the Ortenau ( Central Baden, Germany). It rises on the southern edge of the Northern Black Forest at Kniebis near Bad Griesbach im Schwarzwald. The source farthest from the mouth is that of th ...

valley and southern foothills of the Kniebis in the north to the area of

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

and

Donaueschingen Donaueschingen (; Low Alemannic: ''Eschinge'') is a German town in the Black Forest in the southwest of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg in the Schwarzwald-Baar '' Kreis''. It stands near the confluence of the two sources of the river D ...

in the south. Its highest area, which is southeast of the Elz valley, is also part of the High Black Forest.

Geography

The dominating valley system of the Kinzig cuts through the Middle Black Forest from east to west. Prominent peaks are the

Kandel Kandel () is a town in the Germersheim (district), Germersheim district of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, near the border with France and approximately 18 km north-west of Karlsruhe, and 15 km south-east of Landau. Kandel is twinned wi ...

(), Weißtannenhöhe (), Obereck (), Rohrhardsberg (), Brend (), Stöcklewald () and Mooswaldkopf () south of the Kinzig, and the Brandenkopf () and Lettstädter Höhe () north of the Kinzig.

Geology

Gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...

es and

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies underg ...

s predominate. Unlike the

Northern Black Forest The Northern Black Forest (german: Nordschwarzwald) refers to the northern third of the Black Forest in Germany or, less commonly today, to the northern half of this mountain region. Geography The Northern Black Forest is bounded in the north b ...

the

Bunter sandstone The Buntsandstein (German for ''coloured'' or ''colourful sandstone'') or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Buntsandste ...

covering with its plateau-like mountain shapes has only survived in a few places on the eastern perimeter. Elsewhere the land is marked by narrow ridges and valley floors or, especially in the southeast or even in island-like remnants, hilly highland valley landscapes. The average height of the Central Black Forest is rather lower than in the Northern and

Southern Black Forest The Southern Black Forest (german: Südschwarzwald) is the highest part of the Black Forest, an area heavily transformed by ice age glaciation south of a line roughly from Freiburg im Breisgau to Donaueschingen. The term High Black Forest is no ...

. Relative heights are, however, similar; steep mountainsides can rise to 700 metres above the valley bottoms (e.g. in the valley of Simonswälder Tal).

Significant sub-landscapes and natural monuments

* Glottertal (well known from the TV series, '' Die Schwarzwaldklinik'') * Elz valley * Simonswälder Tal, valley of the Wilde Gutach * Berneck valley, gorge on the upper

Schiltach Schiltach is a town in the district of Rottweil, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the eastern Black Forest, on the river Kinzig, 20 km south of Freudenstadt. Geography Schiltach lies on the eastern side of the Black Fore ...

* Kostgfäll Gorge *

Triberg Waterfalls The Triberg Waterfalls are waterfalls near Triberg in the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg ( Germany). With a descent of 163 m, it is one of the highest waterfalls in Germany and a landmark in the Black Forest region. Above Triberg, in the m ...

* Zweribach Waterfalls * Burgbach Waterfall * Glaswaldsee, lake below the Lettstädter Höhe

Significant settlements and cultural monuments

* Black Forest Open Air Museum, Vogtsbauernhof *

German Clock Museum The German Clock Museum (german: Deutsches Uhrenmuseum) is situated near the centre of the Black Forest town of Furtwangen im Schwarzwald ( Germany), a historical centre of clockmaking. It features permanent and temporary exhibits on the history of ...

Furtwangen Furtwangen im Schwarzwald (; Low Alemannic: ''Furtwange im Schwarzwald'') is a small city located in the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany. Together with Villingen-Schwenningen, Furtwangen is part of the district (German: Kreis) of S ...

* Timber-framed towns of

and

Haslach im Kinzigtal Haslach im Kinzigtal (literally ''Haslach in the Kinzig (Rhine), Kinzig valley''; gsw, label=Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic, Haaslä) is a small city in the Black Forest in the district Ortenaukreis, Baden-Württemberg in south-western Germa ...

* Wolfach, glassworks and old town quarter *

Gengenbach Gengenbach (; gsw, label= Low Alemannic, Gängäbach) is a town in the district of Ortenau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and a popular tourist destination on the western edge of the Black Forest, with about 11,000 inhabitants. Gengenbach is wel ...

, once a free imperial city (old town with abbey and town fortifications) * Alpirsbach, Romanesque

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conc ...

(built from around 1050), one of the few surviving in the Hirsauer Style *

Zell am Harmersbach Zell am Harmersbach is a small town and a historic “ Reichsstadt” in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It lies in the Ortenaukreis, between the Black Forest and the Rhine. History Zell was settled on territory owned by Gengenbach Abbey. The mon ...

, formerly the smallest

free imperial city In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...

in the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 un ...

, timber-framed buildings and

Jugendstil ''Jugendstil'' ("Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German counterpart of ...

Schramberg Schramberg is a town in the district of Rottweil, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the eastern Black Forest, 25 km northwest of Rottweil. With all of its districts (Talstadt, Sulgen, Waldmössingen, Heiligenbronn, Schönbro ...

, important industrial town of the Central Black Forest * St. Peter's Abbey with Baroque library and abbey church * Villingen-Schwenningen, largest town on the eastern perimeter of the Central Black Forest *

Triberg Triberg im Schwarzwald is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located in the Schwarzwald-Baar district in the Black Forest. In 2020, it had a population of 4,656. Triberg lies in the middle of the Black Forest between 500 and 1038 metres abov ...

with its waterfall and the Black Forest Local History Museum * St. Georgen with its Phono Museum

Footpaths

* Hansjakobweg I (3 day circular walk) * Hansjakobweg II (4 day circular walk) * Rottweil–Lahr Black Forest Trail (4 days) * Gengenbach–Alpirsbach Black Forest Trail (2–3 days) * Mittelweg * Ostweg (long distance path) * Westweg (long distance path) * Kandelhöhenweg (5 days) * Zweitälersteig (5 days, long distance path)

References

External links

Website of the Central Black Forest
{{Authority control ! Regions of Baden-Württemberg Black Forest Baden