Thuringian Forest Nature Park () is one of two
nature park
A nature park, or sometimes natural park, is a designation for a protected area by means of long-term land planning, sustainable resource management and limitation of agricultural and real estate developments. These valuable landscapes are pres ...
s in the state of
Thuringia
Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area.
Er ...
,
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 ...
.
Founded in 1990, and expanded in 2018, the nature park now covers and area of more than . It extends around the
Rennsteig and comprises almost the entire
Thuringian Forest
The Thuringian Forest (''Thüringer Wald'' in German language, German ) is a mountain range in the southern parts of the Germany, German state of Thuringia, running northwest to southeast. Skirting from its southerly source in foothills to a gorg ...
and the
Thuringian Highlands with
Eisenach
Eisenach () is a Town#Germany, town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia, and bordering northeastern Hesse, Hessian re ...
in northwest and
Sonneberg
Sonneberg () in Thuringia, Germany, is the seat of the Sonneberg district. It is in the Franconian south of Thuringia, neighboring its Upper Franconian twin town Neustadt bei Coburg.
Sonneberg became known as the "world toy city", and is home ...
in the south. The nature park protection includes the biosphere reservation, and a number of
dam
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...
s such as
Tambach-Dietharz Dam,
Schmalwasser Dam
Schmalwasser is a river of Lower Saxony, Germany on the southern edge of the Lüneburg Heath.
The Schmalwasser rises near Blickwedel (a district of Sprakensehl), winds southwards, is joined from the left by the Räderbach and discharges into the ...
,
Ohra Dam,
Lütsche Dam and the
Leibis-Lichte Dam.
The highest mountains in the park are the
Großer Beerberg () and the
Schneekopf ().
Biosphere Reserve
The nature park is an expansion of an older protection; the "UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Thuringian Forest" established in 1979 as the first
UNESCO biosphere reserve in Germany. The biosphere protection is located in the Thuringian-Franconian low mountains, and after expansions in 1990 and 2018 it now covers an area of 337 km².
See also
*
List of nature parks in Germany
Nature parks in Germany () have been established under section 22, paragraph 4 of that country's Federal Nature Conservation Act (BNatSchG). there were 103 nature parks, comprising about 27 percent of the total land area of Germany and are broug ...
*
List of mountain and hill ranges in Germany
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Thuringian Forest
Nature parks in Thuringia
South Thuringia