The Amseldell is a former

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

-like leisure area about two kilometres west of the German town of

Trippstadt Trippstadt is a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea ...

in the

Palatine Forest The Palatinate Forest (; ), sometimes also called the Palatine Forest, is a low-mountain region in southwestern Germany, located in the Palatinate in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The forest is a designated nature park () covering 1,771&n ...

in the state of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

Geographic location and environment

The Amseldell lies in field parcel (''Gewann'') of the same name in the middle of the forest, to the left of and above the near-natural valley of the Karlstal through which the Moosalb stream flows. The paths climbing from the valley are barely discernable today. One of them begins diagonally opposite the lower entrance to the Karlstal gorge. This narrow track runs past a rock cave on the left-hand side. The rock, which acts as the roof of the cave, was sealed by a rough outer wall with door and window openings at the front. A woman, known locally as the "Rock Woman" (''Felsenweib'') lived here until 1843.Wolfgang Dammbrück (s. Literatur) This is one of the many cave dwellings that existed in the

Palatinate region The Palatinate (; ; Palatine German: ''Palz''), or the Rhenish Palatinate (''Rheinpfalz''), is a historical region of Germany. The Palatinate occupies most of the southern quarter of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate (''Rheinla ...

, the

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

and the

Harz Mountains The Harz (), also called the Harz Mountains, is a Mittelgebirge, highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The nam ...

(for example, in Langenstein) until about the middle of the 19th century. A spur branches off one of the forest and cultural-historical

footpath A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as Motor vehicle, motorized vehicles, bicycles and horseback, horses. They ...

s and leads to the Amseldell. The path starts in the hamlet of

Johanniskreuz Johanniskreuz is a tiny hamlet (place), hamlet in the middle of the Palatine Forest in Germany and belongs to the municipality of Trippstadt in the Kaiserslautern (district), district of Kaiserslautern in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Geog ...

and was waymarked in 1997 under the motto "track search" (''Spurensuche''). A flyer about the route, which is 21 km long and with orange and yellow waymarks, contains additional information about the Amseldell; the flyer is available in Trippstadt and Johanniskreuz.

History

The name ''Amseldell'' means "Blackbird Hollow" and suggests it was a

hollow Hollow may refer to: Natural phenomena *Hollow, a low, wooded area, such as a copse * Hollow (landform), a small vee-shaped, riverine type of valley *Tree hollow, a void in a branch or trunk, which may provide habitat for animals Arts, entertai ...

where blackbirds could be seen. It probably relates, therefore, to a time when the blackbird was still a shy, woodland bird, i.e. before the 19th century. The leisure park in the Amseldell was created in the 19th century under Lord (''Freiherr'') Carl von Gienanth (1818–1890), whose family managed an

ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloome ...

in Trippstadt and, from 1833, also owned Trippstadt House. Its aim was to enhance the walk through the Karlstal valley, which had already been landscaped in the 1780s by garden architect,

Friedrich Ludwig Sckell Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell (13 September 1750, in Weilburg – 24 February 1823, in Munich) was a German landscape gardener from Weilburg an der Lahn. He is regarded as the founder of the English gardens in Germany, which he introduced to the Ger ...

.Tourismus-Marketing Kaiserslautern: ''Karlstal''
/ref> In 1890, after the death of Carl von Gienanth, his estate in Karlstal and Amseldell was donated to the Trippstadt tourist association, who looked after both sites until the 1930s. In May 1914, the Amseldell site was the venue for a regional

gymnastics Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring Balance (ability), balance, Strength training, strength, Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, agility, Motor coordination, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movem ...

festival in which about 250 gymnasts took part.

Today

The park was conceived as a site for various leisure pursuits. Today it is very run down and in need of significant restoration. Recognisable remains are a

maze A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lead ...

made of hedges, a

firing range A shooting range, firing range, gun range or shooting ground is a specialized facility, sports venue, venue, or playing field, field designed specifically for firearm usage qualifications, training, practice, or shooting sport, competitions. ...

made of wood and stone, and a hut.

References

Literature

* Wolfgang Dammbrück: ''Die letzte Bewohnerin der Felsenhöhle am Aufgang zur „Amseldell“, das „Felsenweib“ vom Trippstadter Karlstal''. In: Blätter zur Heimatgeschichte von Trippstadt, 6 (1996), pp. 40–42 {{Coord, 49, 20, 52, N, 7, 44, 43, E, type:landmark_region:DE-RP, display=title Parks in Germany Buildings and structures in Kaiserslautern (district)