Lusatian Highlands
The Lusatian Highlands at www.silvaportal.info. Accessed on 10 July 2011. or Lusatian HillsSaxony
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 ...
, Federal Republic of
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, with an altitude of
above mean sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...
. It is the local mountain of Hainewalde, and about half-an-hour's drive from the village.
Phonolite
Phonolite is an uncommon shallow intrusive or extrusive rock, of intermediate chemical composition between felsic and mafic, with texture ranging from aphanitic (fine-grained) to porphyritic (mixed fine- and coarse-grained). Phonolite is a var ...
covers most of its surface.
Location and surroundings
The Breiteberg is located in the transition area between the
Zittau Mountains
The Zittau Mountains (, ; ), formerly also called the Lusatian Ridge (''Lausitzer Kamm''; ''Łužiski česak''), refer to the German part of the Lusatian Mountains that straddle the Saxony, Saxon-Bohemian border in the extreme southeast of the ...
The mountain has been the site of many legends in the past few centuries. These include the '' Querxe'', a kind of dwarf said to been living in the hill, "The Wild Hunter on the Breitenberge" (''Der Wilde Jäger auf dem Breitenberge'') as well as "The Dragon on the Breitenberge" (''Der Drache auf dem Breitenberge'').
In 1467,
Zittau
Zittau (; ; ; ; ; Lusatian dialects, Upper Lusatian dialect: ''Sitte''; ) is the southeasternmost city in the Germany, German state of Saxony, and belongs to the Görlitz (district), district of Görlitz, Germany's easternmost Districts of Germ ...
folk ambushed the
Hussite
file:Hussitenkriege.tif, upright=1.2, Battle between Hussites (left) and Crusades#Campaigns against heretics and schismatics, Catholic crusaders in the 15th century
file:The Bohemian Realm during the Hussite Wars.png, upright=1.2, The Lands of the ...
s on the hill, killing 150 as they tried to escape to
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
after a successful raid.
In 1880, Johann Franz Vorknecht opened a summer restaurant on top of the Breiteberg. It is one of the area's oldest mountain restaurants ().
In 1936, the Dr. Kurt Heinke Tower was constructed. It is named in honour of a "meritorious connoisseur of southern Upper Lusatia".
In 1881, a monument to Frederick III, a German Emperor was built on the north side with the inscription "Learn to suffer without complaining" (German: ''Lerne leiden ohne zu klagen''). The monument, made of bronze on a stone plinth was 5 metres high and built by the reputable company of "Gladebeck und Sohn" from Berlin. The monument was removed in 1949, nowadays just the stone plinth is left.
Observation tower
The summit is wooded but the tower provides a superb panoramic view in all directions towards the Lusatian and
Zittau Mountains
The Zittau Mountains (, ; ), formerly also called the Lusatian Ridge (''Lausitzer Kamm''; ''Łužiski česak''), refer to the German part of the Lusatian Mountains that straddle the Saxony, Saxon-Bohemian border in the extreme southeast of the ...
, the
Lusatian Highlands
The Lusatian Highlands at www.silvaportal.info. Accessed on 10 July 2011. or Lusatian HillsLandeskrone nearby
Görlitz
Görlitz (; ; ; ; ; Lusatian dialects, East Lusatian: , , ) is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is on the river Lusatian Neisse and is the largest town in Upper Lusatia, the second-largest town in the region of Lusatia after ...
, the
Jizera Mountains
Jizera Mountains (), or Izera Mountains (; ), are part of the Western Sudetes on the border between the Czech Republic and Poland. The range got its name from the Jizera (river), Jizera River, which rises at the southern base of the Smrk (Jizera), ...
, the
Giant Mountains
The Giant Mountains, Krkonoše, or Karkonosze (Czech: , , ), are a mountain range located in the north of the Czech Republic and the south-west of Poland, part of the Sudetes mountain system (part of the Bohemian Massif). The Czech–Polish bor ...
and the
Ještěd
Ještěd (; ) is the highest mountain of the Ještěd–Kozákov Ridge in the north of the Czech Republic, at . It is the symbol of the city of Liberec.
On the summit is the Ještěd Tower restaurant, hotel and television tower, designed by Kare ...
. A key for the tower can be borrowed from the restaurant.
Routes to the summit
Three ways lead to the summit, two of which are illuminated. A cycle path leads uphill from Bertsdorf which is also used for resupplying the restaurant. The Martin Köhler Way from Hainewalde is for hikers.
Sights
*Querxloch (cave-like crevice)
*Querxenbrunnen (enclosed spring)
*Dr. Kurt Heinke Tower (13m observation tower on the hilltop)
Werte unserer Heimat
Werte der deutschen Heimat (literally "Values of the German Homeland") originally ''Werte der Deutschen Heimat'' and, between 1970 and 1990 called ''Werte unserer Heimat'', was a series of publications by former East German Academy of Sciences at B ...