The Hochberg is a 635.3-metre-high mountain in the central

Haardt The Haardt () is a range of wooded, sandstone hills in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in southwestern Germany. The range is some long and lies within the Palatinate Forest (''Pfälzerwald''). Its highest point is the Kalmit, near Maikammer ...

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 ...

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 ...

. It lies on the territory of the municipality of

Sankt Martin (Palatinate) Sankt Martin is a municipality in Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Buildings The medieval center is worth seeing and is since 1980 under Cultural heritage management. St. Martin, Martin of Tours, is also the pat ...

in the county of

Südliche Weinstraße Südliche Weinstraße (; ; ) is a district (''Kreis'') in the south of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from west clockwise) Südwestpfalz, Bad Dürkheim, the district-free city Neustadt (Weinstraße), Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis ...

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 ...

. After the

Kalmit The Kalmit is the highest peak in the Palatinate Forest and the second highest (after the Donnersberg) in the Palatinate region of Germany. It is and located south of the town of Neustadt an der Weinstraße. The mountain attracts many tourists ...

(673 m), the

Kesselberg Walchensee or Lake Walchen is one of the deepest and largest alpine lakes in Germany, with a maximum depth of and an area of . The lake is south of Munich in the middle of the Bavarian Alps. The entire lake, including the island of Sassau, ...

(662 m) and the Roßberg (637 m) it is the fourth highest peak in the Palatine Forest.

Location

The mountain lies south of two other mountains, the Breitenberg and the

Hüttenberg Hüttenberg is a municipality in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is als ...

, that are also part of the

massif and are located between the valleys of ''St. Martiner Tal'' in the north and ''Edenkobener Tal'' in the south. In addition to the main summit there is also a subpeak to the southeast, the Straußenberg (583 m). To the east the massif drops down to the

Rhine Plain The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben (German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the s ...

, its foothills including the Kropsburg (334 m), the Heidelberg (338 m) and the Werderberg (350 m) with its

peace monument The Peace Monument, also known as the Navy Monument, Naval Monument or Navy-Peace Monument, stands on the western edge of the United States Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C. It is in the middle of Peace Circle, where First Street and Pennsy ...

. To the west of the mountain is the

Schafkopf Schafkopf (, lit. 'sheep's head'), also called Bavarian Schafkopf, is a popular German Trick-taking game, trick-taking card game of the ace–ten family for four players that evolved, towards the end of the 19th century, from German Schafkopf. ...

(617 m), with which it is linked via a

saddle A saddle is a supportive structure for a rider of an animal, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is equestrian. However, specialized saddles have been created for oxen, camels and other animals. It is not know ...

by the St. Martiner Hut (486 m). On the

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

-covered summit there is a stone

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

, the ''Steinernes Köppl''. Not far from the summit is a rock outcrop, the ''Schornsteinfelsen'', from which it is possible to see the Rhine Plain.

Natural region

The Hochberg is part of the

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 and ...

of the Palatine Forest that, in the system by Emil Meynen and

Josef Schmithüsen Josef may refer to *Josef (given name) *Josef (surname) * ''Josef'' (film), a 2011 Croatian war film *Musik Josef Musik Josef is a Japanese manufacturer of musical instruments. It was founded by Yukio Nakamura and is the only company in Japan spec ...

published in the Handbuch der naturräumlichen Gliederung Deutschland and its successor publications is classified as a major region of the 3rd order. Within the mountain range itself, it belongs to the Central Palatine Forest.

Access and footpaths

The mountain summit may be climbed on signed hiking trails from the Kropsburg to the east or from the Wegspinne by the St. Martiner Hut to the west.

Gallery

File:2012 Pfälzerwald 526 Schraußenberg.JPG, Straußenberg File:2012 Pfälzerwald 522 Hochberg.JPG, Hochberg File:2013 Pfälzerwald 137 Hochberg Steinernes Köppl.JPG, The ''Steinernes Köppl'' at the summit in summer File:2013 Pfälzerwald 035 Hochberggipfel 635m Steinernes Köppl.JPG, The ''Steinernes Köppl'' at the summit in winter File:2013 Pfälzerwald 135 Hochberg Schornsteinfelsen.JPG, The ''Schornsteinfelsen'' rocks File:2013 Pfälzerwald 044 Hochberg Blick vom Schornsteinfelsen.JPG, View from the Schornsteinfelsen rocks

References

Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde: ''Geographische Landesaufnahme. Die naturräumlichen Einheiten in Einzelblättern 1:200.000''. Bad Godesberg 1952–1994. →&nbs
Online-Karten
Blatt 160: Landau i. d. Pfalz (Adalbert Pemöller, 1969; 47 S.) Helmut Beeger u. a.: ''Die Landschaften von Rheinhessen-Pfalz – Benennung und räumliche Abgrenzung.'' In: ''Berichte zur deutschen Landeskunde'', Band 63, Heft 2, Trier, 1989, S. 327–359

External links

{{commons category Mountains and hills of Rhineland-Palatinate Südliche Weinstraße Mountains and hills of the Palatinate Forest Mountains under 1000 metres