The Amselsee (also ''Amselsee Rathen'') is a small

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

in the spa town of

Rathen Rathen is a village in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, in Saxony, Germany, about southeast of Dresden. The village occupies both banks of the river Elbe and, as of 2020, has 339 inhabitants. Rathen is a popular tourist destination, the main sigh ...

Saxon Switzerland Saxon Switzerland (, ) is a hilly climbing area and national park in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. It is located around the Elbe valley south-east of Dresden in Saxony, Germany, adjoining Bohemian Switzerland in the Czech Republic. Toge ...

. It is located in the

Free State of Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

in Eastern Germany.

Reservoir

To create the Amselsee in

, in 1934 a stream, the ''Grünbach'' (or ''Amselgrundbach''), the main waterbody in the Amselgrund valley, was impounded by the municipality of

just above its confluence with the

Wehlgrund The Wehlgrund in Saxon Switzerland Saxon Switzerland (, ) is a hilly climbing area and national park in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. It is located around the Elbe valley south-east of Dresden in Saxony, Germany, adjoining Bohemian Swi ...

that joins from the rights 1934. The dam is around five metres high. At 127 m above sea level the curved, narrow, roughly 550 m long trout pond is used in summer for boat rides (using slot machines!) as well as for fish breeding and also provides

flood prevention Flood management or flood control are methods used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters. Flooding can be caused by a mix of both natural processes, such as extreme weather upstream, and human changes to waterbodies and ru ...

. Round trips have been possible since 1969. The

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

stock is sometimes mixed with American

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...

. Amongst the lakeside vegetation broad-winged damselflies or demoiselles may be seen.

Dam

The barrier is a straight

gravity dam A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation. Gravity dams are designed so that each section of the dam is ...

made of

rubble stone Rubble masonry or rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Some medieval cathedral walls have outer shells of ashlar wit ...

masonry. It was built in 1934 and taken into service in 1935. According to an article in the

Sächsische Zeitung ''Sächsische Zeitung'' (; "Saxon Newspaper") is a regional German daily newspaper. The paper is published in Dresden. Its circulation is around 227.940, a fall of around 40% since 1998. Around 93% of copies sold are delivered to subscribers. D ...

of 31 July 2004 the period of construction lasted from 21 July 1934 to 19 December 1934. It has a drainage outlet with a diameter of 50 cm and a flood

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...

with 7 openings, each 2 m wide, in the centre of the dam.

Gallery

File: Bastei - Amselgrund mit Amselsee, Lokomotive und dem Talwächter.jpg, The Amselgrund with the Amselsee, Lokomotive and the Talwächter File:Sächsische Schweiz Amselsee (01).JPG, View of the dam

External links

{{commons category
Further information on the Amselsee
Dams completed in 1934 Reservoirs in Saxony Dams in Saxony LAmselsee Bodies of water of Saxon Switzerland Rathen Buildings and structures in Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge 1934 establishments in Germany