Rochlitzer Berg is a mountain of volcanic origin in

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 ...

, southeastern

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 is situated south-west of the town of

Rochlitz Rochlitz (; , ) is a major district town (Große Kreisstadt) in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. Rochlitz is the head of the "municipal partnership Rochlitz" (Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Rochlitz) with its other members being the mu ...

on the river

Zwickauer Mulde The Zwickauer Mulde () is a river in Saxony, Germany. It is the left tributary of the Mulde and in length. The source of the river is in the Ore Mountains, near Schöneck, in the Vogtlandkreis. It runs northeast to Aue, then northwest to ...

. Its elevation is variously given as 348.9 m NHN, 348 m HN or 353 m NN. The mountain is also known as ''Rochlitzer Collm''.

Geology

The so-called ''Rochlitzer Porphyr'', a

rhyolitic Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals ( phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The miner ...

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

, which makes up a large part of the mountain, was formed from deposits of late explosive eruptions of a volcano about 250 million years ago. The colour of the rock is usually reddish to reddish-violet, occasionally also reddish brown to beige. Its texture is grainy and marked by many pore-like cavities (macro-pores). While the designation as "porphyry" has been passed down through history and is commonly used, it is petrographically incorrect. The tuff rock has been used since roughly a thousand years all over the region, also by

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

master builder A master builder or master mason is a central figure leading construction projects in pre-modern times (a combination of a modern expert carpenter, construction site supervisor, and architect / engineer). Historically, the term has generally ref ...

s Arnold von Westfalen and

Hieronymus Lotter Hieronymus Lotter (* around 1497 in Nuremberg; † 22 July 1580 in Geyer / Ore Mountains) was a merchant and several times List of mayors of Leipzig, mayor of Leipzig, construction manager for important Landeshoheit, sovereign building projects in ...

. The latter used it for the Old Town Hall in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

and Augustusburg castle. More recently, it was used for facing of Stadthalle

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt (); ; ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...

and the

Peasants' War Panorama The Peasants' War Panorama () is a public monument in Bad Frankenhausen, Thuringia, Germany. It houses the monumental painting ''Early Bourgeois Revolution in Germany'' () by East German painter Werner Tübke, executed from 1976 to 1987. The paini ...

near Bad Frankenhausen. Tuff was mined in up to 10 individual quarries. Since 1879 ''Vereinigte Porphyrbrüche auf dem Rochlitzer Berge'' ("United Porphyry Quarries on Rochlitzer Berg") have been responsible for the operations. Explosives have been used only since 1991 in the last operating quarry. The amount of rock to be quarried is limited for reasons of nature and landscape protection. The tuff rock of Rochlitzer Berg has been named in May 2006 as one of the 77 most important national

geotope A geotope is the geological component of the abiotic matrix present in an ecotope. Example geotopes might be an exposed outcrop of rocks, an erratic boulder, a grotto or ravine, a cave, an old stone wall marking a property boundary, and so forth. ...

s on Germany by the Academy of Geosciences in Hannover. According to a ballot led by Heinz Sielmann Foundation in 2012, "Rochlitz Porphyry" is the fourth most beautiful natural wonder in Germany.

Tourism

An instructional hiking path documenting the history of quarrying has been established on a circular route on and around Rochlitzer Berg. It offers views into the former quarries which are up to 50 m deep. A 3 km long hiking path connects the mountain with

Rochlitz Castle Rochlitz Castle or Rochlitz Palace () lies in the west of the town of Rochlitz in the county of Mittelsachsen in the Free State of Saxony. It was built on the site of an imperial castle, erected in the second half of the 10th century, which fell ...

. A viewpoint on the southern side of the mountain offers views towards

. If the weather is favourable, the crest of the

Ore Mountains The Ore Mountains (, or ; ) lie along the Czech–German border, separating the historical regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Saxony in Germany. The highest peaks are the Klínovec in the Czech Republic (German: ''Keilberg'') at ab ...

with

Fichtelberg The Fichtelberg () is a mountain with two main peaks in the middle of the Ore Mountains in the east German state of Saxony, near the Czech border. At above sea level, the Fichtelberg is the highest mountain in Saxony, the second highest in the ...

mountain can also be seen. A memorial stone, commemorating the return of King

Frederick Augustus I of Saxony Frederick Augustus I (; ; ; 23 December 1750 – 5 May 1827) was a member of the House of Wettin who reigned as the last Elector of Saxony from 1763 to 1806 (as Frederick Augustus III) and as the first King of Saxony from 1806 to 1827. He was al ...

from

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

n captivity after the

Battle of the Nations A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force c ...

, was erected in 1815 at the instigation of quarry owner Seidel and other sponsors. The observation tower ''Friedrich-August-Turm'', designed by the well-known

Freiberg Freiberg () is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany, with around 41,000 inhabitants. The city lies in the foreland of the Ore Mountains, in the Saxon urbanization axis, which runs along the northern edge of the Elster and ...

art master Eduard Heuchler and erected in 1860, was dedicated to king

Frederick Augustus II of Saxony Frederick Augustus II (; 18 May 1797 – 9 August 1854) was King of Saxony and a member of the House of Wettin. He was the eldest son of Maximilian, Prince of Saxony – younger son of the Elector Frederick Christian of Saxony – by h ...

who died in an accident in 1854. In the 1860s it served as a first-order station No. 17 of the Royal Saxon

Triangulation In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by forming triangles to the point from known points. Applications In surveying Specifically in surveying, triangulation involves only angle m ...

. The stone column with the

benchmark Benchmark may refer to: Business and economics * Benchmarking, evaluating performance within organizations * Benchmark price * Benchmark (crude oil), oil-specific practices Science and technology * Experimental benchmarking, the act of defining a ...

is still preserved on the observation platform. A restaurant has existed on Rochlitzer Berg since 1861, the current restaurant ''Türmerhaus'' ("Tower Watchman's House") was newly built in 2002. It can be reached from the parking lot by a short walk uphill.

Events

The music event ''Performance zum Stein'' takes place every year in one of the former quarries, where ''Mittelsächsische Philharmonie'' and other bodies of sound present classical and experimental pieces. The local sports club VfA (Verein für Ausdauersport) Rochlitzer Berg e.V. organises yearly footraces on

New Year's Day In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, January 1, 1 January. Most solar calendars, such as the Gregorian and Julian calendars, begin the year regularly at or near the December solstice, northern winter ...

and on the Sundays next to the spring equinox and the autumn equinox over distances of 3.5, 10.5, and 21 km (the latter only in autumn).

References

External links

* {{cite web , url = http://www.umwelt.sachsen.de/umwelt/geologie/9997.htm , title = Der Rochlitzer Berg , author = Sächsisches Landesamt für Umwelt, Landwirtschaft und Geologie , language = German Description of the geotope Mountains of Saxony

Berg Berg may refer to: People *Berg (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * General Berg (disambiguation) * Berg Ng (born 1960), Hong Kong actor * Berg (footballer, born 1963), Ninimbergue dos Santos Guerra, Brazilian footba ...

Geology

Tourism

Events

References

Further reading

External links