The Großer Falkenstein or Great Falkenstein, is a mountain, high, in the

Bavarian Forest The village of Zell in the Bavarian Forest The Bavarian Forest (German: ' or ''Bayerwald''; bar, Boarischa Woid) is a wooded, low-mountain region in Bavaria, Germany that is about 100 kilometres long. It runs along the Czech border and is con ...

about five kilometres southeast of

Bayerisch Eisenstein Bayerisch Eisenstein, until 1951 just Eisenstein ( cs, Bavorská Železná Ruda) is a village and a municipality in the Regen district, in Bavaria, Germany. Geography Bayerisch Eisenstein is part of Bayerischer Wald and borders the first German ...

in the Falkenstein-Rachel region of the

Bavarian Forest National Park The Bavarian Forest National Park (german: Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald) is a national park in the Eastern Bavarian Forest immediately on Germany's border with the Czech Republic. It was founded on 7 October 1970 as the first national park in ...

Views

From the

summit cross A summit cross (german: Gipfelkreuz) is a cross on the summit of a mountain or hill that marks the top. Often there will be a summit register (''Gipfelbuch'') at the cross, either in a container or at least a weatherproof case. Various other form ...

there are extensive views to the west and south of the

Großer Arber The Großer Arber (); cs, Velký Javor, "Great Maple") or Great Arber,e.g. Mauser, Wolfram and Monika Prasch (eds). ''Regional Assessment of Global Change Impacts: The Project GLOWA-Danube''. Heidelberg: Springer, 2006. p. 94. is the highest pea ...

, the

Großer Osser The Osser (Czech: ''Ostrý'') is a mountain on the border between Germany and the Czech Republic, in the Bavarian Forest and Bohemian Forest and which belongs to the Kunisch Mountains. Location and description A distinction is made between th ...

, the town of Zwiesel and the

Großer Rachel The Großer Rachel or Great Rachel is a mountain, ; it is the second highest summit in the Bavarian Forest and Bohemian Forest after the Großer Arber and the highest mountain in the Bavarian Forest National Park. Together with the Kleiner Rach ...

. To the west and lower is the Kleiner Falkenstein, also a worthwhile viewing point.

Ascent

An ascent to the summit is possible in around 2 hours following the trails marked Heidelbeere, Eibe, Silberblatt and Esche from the start points of Zwieslerwaldhaus, Kreuzstraßl and Scheuereck. Worth seeing is the so-called

Höllbachgspreng The Höllbachgspreng is a wooded rock massif below the Großer Falkenstein mountain in the vicinity of Lindberg in the Bavarian Forest, Germany. Description This terrain hollow with extremely steep sides owes its formation to the last ice age. ...

, an area of rocky terrain with a gorge and stream that has several waterfalls and numerous runnels descending to the Höllbachschwelle, a small lake. The path through this area is very challenging and should only be attempted by experienced hikers.

Mountain hut

At the summit is a

mountain hut A mountain hut is a building located high in the mountains, generally accessible only by foot, intended to provide food and shelter to mountaineers, climbers and hikers. Mountain huts are usually operated by an Alpine Club or some organization d ...

owned by the

Zwiesel Zwiesel ( cs, Svízel) is a town in the lower-Bavarian district of Regen, and since 1972 is a Luftkurort with particularly good air. The name of the town was derived from the Bavarian word stem "zwisl" which refers to the form of a fork. The fo ...

branch of the

Bavarian Forest Club The Bavarian Forest Club (german: Bayerische Wald-Verein), or BWV, is a German club that promotes culture, local history and folklore, nature and landscape conservation, and walking in the Bavarian Forest. It has its head office in Zwiesel and is ...

, which is open daily during the summer and at weekends in winter. It has overnight accommodation. The hut, the ''Falkenstein-Schutzhaus'', was built in autumn 1932 to plans by

Straubing Straubing () is an independent city in Lower Bavaria, southern Germany. It is seat of the district of Straubing-Bogen. Annually in August the Gäubodenvolksfest, the second largest fair in Bavaria, is held. The city is located on the Danube form ...

town architect, Oskar Schmidt, handed over on 7 January 1933 to the public and formally opened on 15 and 16 June 1933 as part of a field mass by the Ludwigsthal parish priest, Maier. At that time it already had 30 bedspaces. On 12 September 1975, after 2 years of renovation and extension work, the hut was reopened at an event attended by 2,000 people. Since then it has had 60 bedspaces. In January 2018 the members of the Bavarian Forest Club voted for the demolition and rebuilding of the mountain hut.

Geotope

The summit crag of the Großer Falkenstein has been designated as an important

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. ...

(Geotope no.: 276R022) by the Bavarian State Office for the Environment.

References

Bayerisches Landesamt für Umwelt, Geotop ''Gipfelklippe des Großen Falkenstein SE von Zwieslerwaldhaus''
(retrieved 18 October 2017).

External links

Falkenstein Schutzhaus

Falkenstein slide show at ''waldberge.de''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grosser Falkenstein One-thousanders of Germany Mountains of Bavaria Bohemian Forest Mountains of the Bavarian Forest Regen (district)