At , the Grand Wintersberg (german: Großer Wintersberg) is the highest hill in the North Vosges in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The Grand Wintersberg lies about four kilometres northwest of

Niederbronn-les-Bains Niederbronn-les-Bains () is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is positioned between Bitche and Wissembourg, close to the current frontier with Germany. Niederbronn-les-Bains is part of the Northern Vo ...

. The massif separates the valleys of the Falkensteinerbach and the Schwarzbach. At its summit, which is made of

Bunter Sandstone The Buntsandstein (German for ''coloured'' or ''colourful sandstone'') or Bunter sandstone is a lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic unit (a sequence of rock strata) in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Buntsands ...

, stands a 25-metre-high observation tower, which offer hikers an outstanding panoramic view over the North Vosges, the Palatine Forest and the

Upper 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 ...

across to the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

. At the 514-metre-high

saddle The 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 kno ...

between Grand and Petit Wintersberg (Col de la Liese) is a hut, the ''Chalet du Wintersberg'', managed by the Vosges Club, as well as the ''Liese'', a Gallo-Roman, sphinx-like sandstone

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

. Celtic relicts may also be found on the hill of ''Ziegenberg'' to the southeast.

Notes

External links

Grand Wintersberg in the Pässelexikon at quaeldich.de
(access: June 6, 2014) {{DEFAULTSORT:Wintersberg, Grand Mountains of Bas-Rhin Mountains of the Vosges Observation towers in France Hills of France