Burgholz is a hill in the

Gilserberg Heights The Upper Hessian Ridge () or Upper Hesse Ridge is a hill chain in the West Hesse Highlands in North and Middle Hesse, which lies on the Rhine-Weser watershed and links the montane Central Upland ranges of the Kellerwald and the Vogelsberg in a n ...

near the town of

Kirchhain Kirchhain () is a town in Marburg-Biedenkopf district in Hesse, Germany. Geography Kirchhain is located in the heart of the state of Hesse in Marburg-Biedenkopf district. Geographically, it is surrounded by the Amöneburg Basin on the southeast ...

Marburg-Biedenkopf Marburg-Biedenkopf is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the west of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Waldeck-Frankenberg, Schwalm-Eder, Vogelsbergkreis, Gießen, Lahn-Dill, Siegen-Wittgenstein. History The district was created in 1974 when t ...

, which is high. On the summit and the north-east slope is the district of Burgholz, which is part of the town of Kirchhain. The majority of the hill is covered by trees, with the exception of some housing on one slope.

Geography

The Burgholz is the southwestern-most mountain of the Gilserberger Heights and merges directly into the Amöneburg Basin in the northern part of Kirchhain, while the Wohra valley joins it to the west, beyond which the southern Burgwald begins (separated from the northern part by the B3). On its outer flanks are Emsdorf (in the east), higher parts of Langenstein and Kirchhain (in the south), the town of

Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" or "Bob" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combine painting, Combines (1954� ...

(already in and behind the valley of the Wohra, in the west), Ernsthausen (in the north of the valley) and Wolferode (also in the valley, in the northeast). Despite its low height, the Burgholz is about 10 km taller than the Amöneburg, though to the north the elevations of the same ridge are much higher, due to being in the vicinity of the significantly higher

Kellerwald The Kellerwald is a low mountain range reaching heights of up to 675 m in the western part of northern Hesse, Germany. Its assets include Germany's largest contiguous beech woodland and it contains Hesse's only national park, the Kellerwald-Ederse ...

Peak

Since 1968, the top of the Burgholz has had the Hunburgturm, a 28.5 m high wooden observation tower, which provides a view of peaks in the

Rothaar Mountains The Rothaar Mountains (, , also ''Rotlagergebirge''), or Rothaar, is a low mountain range reaching heights of up to 843.1 m in North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse, Germany. It is believed that its name must once have been ''Rod-Hard-Gebirge'', ...

, including Kahlem Asten, Ziegenhelle, Bollerberg, and Sackpfeife. Peaks in the

Gladenbach Uplands The Gladenbach Uplands (), named after their central town of Gladenbach, is a range of hills up to 609 m high in the Rhine Massif in Germany, on the junction of the Rothaar Mountains (north and northwest), Westerwald (southwest), (Eastern) ...

are also visible, including Dünsberg, Rimberg,

Knüll The Knüllgebirge () or simply Knüll () is a small mountain range in the northern part of Hesse, Germany, approximately south of Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern He ...

, Kellerwald, and the

Vogelsberg The Vogelsberg () is a large volcanic mountain range in the German Central Uplands in the state of Hesse, separated from the Rhön Mountains by the Fulda (river), Fulda river valley. Emerging approximately 19 million years ago, the Vogelsber ...

range. The tower is named after a castle that used to be near there, the Hunburg.

Hunburg Castle

On the northwest spur of Burgholz, 6 km north of Kirchhain, are the ruins of Hunburg Castle, from roughly the 8th century. The ruins consist of fortifications with sections of trench and walls, a pincer gate in the southeast, and what is potentially a basement from a now-absent building.

References

Mountains of Hesse Marburg-Biedenkopf {{Hesse-geo-stub