The Amseldell is a former

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

-like leisure area about two kilometres west of the German town of

Trippstadt Trippstadt is a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country i ...

in the Palatine Forest in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Geographic location and environment

The Amseldell lies in field parcel (''Gewann'') of the same name in the middle of the forest, to the left of and above the near-natural valley of the Karlstal through which the Moosalb stream flows. The paths climbing from the valley are barely discernable today. One of them begins diagonally opposite the lower entrance to the Karlstal gorge. This narrow track runs past a rock cave on the left-hand side. The rock, which acts as the roof of the cave, was sealed by a rough outer wall with door and window openings at the front. A woman, known locally as the "Rock Woman" (''Felsenweib'') lived here until 1843.Wolfgang Dammbrück (s. Literatur) This is one of the many cave dwellings that existed in the Palatinate region, the Alsace and the Harz Mountains (for example, in Langenstein) until about the middle of the 19th century. A spur branches off one of the forest and cultural-historical

footpath A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as motorized vehicles, bicycles and horses. They can be found in a wide ...

s and leads to the Amseldell. The path starts in the hamlet of

Johanniskreuz Johanniskreuz is a tiny hamlet in the middle of the Palatine Forest in Germany and belongs to the municipality of Trippstadt in the district of Kaiserslautern in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Geography Location Johanniskreuz lies in ...

and was waymarked in 1997 under the motto "track search" (''Spurensuche''). A flyer about the route, which is 21 km long and with orange and yellow waymarks, contains additional information about the Amseldell; the flyer is available in Trippstadt and Johanniskreuz.

History

The name ''Amseldell'' means "Blackbird Hollow" and suggests it was a

hollow Hollow may refer to: Natural phenomena *Hollow, a low, wooded area, such as a copse * Hollow (landform), a small vee-shaped, riverine type of valley *Tree hollow, a void in a branch or trunk, which may provide habitat for animals Places * Sleepy ...

where

blackbirds Blackbird, blackbirds, black bird or black birds may refer to: Birds Two groups of birds in the parvorder Passerida: * New World blackbirds, family Icteridae * Old World blackbirds, any of several species belonging to the genus ''Turdus'' in the ...

could be seen. It probably relates, therefore, to a time when the blackbird was still a shy, woodland bird, i.e. before the 19th century. The leisure park in the Amseldell was created in the 19th century under Lord (''Freiherr'') Carl von Gienanth (1818–1890), whose family managed an

ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloomeri ...

in Trippstadt and, from 1833, also owned

Trippstadt House Trippstadt House (german: Trippstadter Schloss) is an 18th-century, baroque ''schloss'' or manor house in the eponymous village in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Building The building is made of red sandstone and comprises a single w ...

. Its aim was to enhance the walk through the Karlstal valley, which had already been landscaped in the 1780s by garden architect,

Friedrich Ludwig Sckell Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell (13 September 1750, in Weilburg – 24 February 1823, in Munich) was a German landscape gardener from Weilburg an der Lahn. He is regarded as the founder of the English gardens in Germany, which he introduced to the Ge ...

.Tourismus-Marketing Kaiserslautern: ''Karlstal''
/ref> In 1890, after the death of Carl von Gienanth, his estate in Karlstal and Amseldell was donated to the Trippstadt tourist association, who looked after both sites until the 1930s. In May 1914, the Amseldell site was the venue for a regional gymnastics festival in which about 250 gymnasts took part.

Today

The park was conceived as a site for various leisure pursuits. Today it is very run down and in need of significant restoration. Recognisable remains are a

maze A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lea ...

made of hedges, a firing range made of wood and stone, and a hut.

References

Literature

* Wolfgang Dammbrück: ''Die letzte Bewohnerin der Felsenhöhle am Aufgang zur „Amseldell“, das „Felsenweib“ vom Trippstadter Karlstal''. In: Blätter zur Heimatgeschichte von Trippstadt, 6 (1996), pp. 40–42 {{Coord, 49, 20, 52, N, 7, 44, 43, E, type:landmark_region:DE-RP, display=title Parks in Germany Buildings and structures in Kaiserslautern (district)