The Neuburg Forest (german: Neuburger Wald) is a largely forested hill ridge and

natural region A natural region (landscape unit) is a basic geographic unit. Usually, it is a region which is distinguished by its common natural features of geography, geology, and climate. From the ecological point of view, the naturally occurring flora an ...

Lower Bavaria Lower Bavaria (german: Niederbayern, Bavarian: ''Niedabayern'') is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of the state. Geography Lower Bavaria is subdivided into two regions () – Landshut and Donau-W ...

in the county of

Passau Passau (; bar, label= Central Bavarian, Båssa) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany, also known as the Dreiflüssestadt ("City of Three Rivers") as the river Danube is joined by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Passau's po ...

and the borough of

. It is named after the village of

Neuburg am Inn Neuburg am Inn is a municipality in the district of Passau in Bavaria in Germany. Geography Geographical Location Neuburg am Inn is located in the Danube-region forest high above the river Inn, which forms the natural border with Upper Aust ...

Geography

The Neuburg Forest is actually a range of foothills of the

Bavarian Forest The village of Zell in the Bavarian Forest The Bavarian Forest (German: ' or ''Bayerwald''; bar, Boarischa Woid) is a wooded, low-mountain region in Bavaria, Germany that is about 100 kilometres long. It runs along the Czech border and is co ...

on the far side of the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

and thus forms a perimeter zone of the

Bohemian Massif The Bohemian Massif ( cs, Česká vysočina or ''Český masiv'', german: Böhmische Masse or ''Böhmisches Massiv'') is a geomorphological province in Central Europe. It is a large massif stretching over most of the Czech Republic, eastern Ger ...

. It lies south of the Danube and extends for almost 30 kilometres from the lower Vils valley near

Vilshofen Vilshofen an der Donau is a town in the German district of Passau. Demographics Religion The population of Vilshofen is predominantly Christian. In Vilshofen there is a Catholic Church, a Protestant Church and a new Apostolic Church. 78.36% ...

to the lower Inn valley near

, and in the southeast to

. In the north lie the steep slopes of the Löwenwand near Seestetten (southern right bank of the Danube). The average width of the hill range is just under seven kilometres. The Neuburg Forest covers an area of 186 square kilometres. On Austrian territory east of the Inn, the

Sauwald The Sauwald in Upper Austria is the largest part of the Bohemian Massif lying south of the Danube. Its plateau runs from Passau and Schärding on the Inn to Eferding. Origin of the name: Passau Forest Folk etymology, Folk etymologically the nam ...

is its continuation. Taking that into account, the Danube has cut its way through the foothills of the Bavarian Forest for a total length of 70 km. The Neuburg Forest is divided into three main regions:Felix Mader: Die Kunstdenkmäler von Bayern. Bezirksamt Passau. Oldenbourg, 1920, page 2 in a narrower sense, only the eastern third of this area is called the Neuburg Forest, with an area of about 60 km². The central part of the

is called ''Hochbuchet'', while the western part, west of the Laufenbach, between Hochbuchet and Vils valley, has no special name. Also the Alkofen Heights left of the Vils are still counted as part of the natural region of the Neuburg Forest. Most of the Neuburg Forest is located in the municipalities of

Fürstenzell Fürstenzell ( bar, label=Central Bavarian, Fiaschtnzei) is a municipality in the district of Passau in Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germa ...

and

(from which the forest derives its name), as well as in the southern Passau districts of Heining. (where the Löwenwand is found), Haidenhof Nord and Haidenhof Süd. Its northwestern part west of the Lauterbach extends into the territory of the borough of

(near Seestetten: ''Seestettner Holz'' with the 390-metre-high ''Hirschenberg''). The forested hill range has an average height of 400 to 475 metres, reaching its highest point at 499 metres above sea level at the summit of the ''Platte'',Fritsch hiking map, 8th edition: ''"Bavarian Forest" with entries for the Bavarian Forest Nature and National Park'', scale 1:100,000. a flat ''

kuppe A ''Kuppe'' is the term used in German-speaking central Europe for a mountain or hill with a rounded summit that has no rock formation, such as a tor, on it. A range of such hills is called a ''Kuppengebirge''. In geology the term also refers to ...

'' near the village of Altenmarkt in the municipality of

at . On the ''Platte'' is a

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towers often operate in conju ...

. The second highest point is only slightly lower at 498 metres; it is located in the ''Hochgasse'' woods on the county road, the '' Kreisstraße PA11'' near the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

of Haunreut, in Fürstenzell, at . The Neuburg Forest is composed of

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 un ...

and

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 a ...

es. Especially on its northern and southwestern slopes, it is embedded in thick

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

References

Literature

*Elmar Thumbach: ''Der Neuburger Wald'', in: ''Der Bayerische Wald'', Jubiläums-Heft ''150 Jahre Naturwissenschaftlicher Verein Passau'', 21st year, December 2008, pp. 88−95 *Ulrich Pietrusky, Günther Michler, Donatus Moosauer: ''Niederbayern – im Fluge neu entdeckt'', Verlag Morsak Grafenau, 2nd edn. 1982, *Passauer Land, published by the House of Bavarian History (''Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte''), Augsburg, 2009 (Edition Bayern 1), Friedrich Pustet, 88 pages, , {{Authority control Forests and woodlands of Bavaria Regions of Bavaria Natural regions of the Upper Palatine-Bavarian Forest Passau (district) Passau Bohemian Massif East Bavaria