Spessart Nature Park (german: Naturpark Spessart) is a

nature park A nature park, or sometimes natural park, is a designation for a protected natural area by means of long-term land planning, sustainable resource management and limitation of agricultural and real estate developments. These valuable landscape ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, managed by ''Naturpark Spessart e. V.'' The park spans the states of

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

and

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, and covers an area of 2,440 km² within the German hill range known as the Spessart. The geological foundation of the park is formed by a

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 ...

plate, up to about 400 metres thick, which tilts towards the southeast. The nature park includes the largest contiguous area of mixed forest in Germany. Deep valleys, gentle hillsides and heights characterise the landscape of the Spessart. Spessart Nature Park consists of two parts: *The Bavarian Spessart Nature Park (''Naturpark Bayerischer Spessart''), founded in 1961, in Northwestern

, which covers an area of 1,710 km² and lies in the so-called

Main Main may refer to: Geography * Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

rectangle. *The Hessian Spessart Nature Park (''Naturpark Hessischer Spessart''), founded in 1962, in southeastern

, which has an area of 730 km² and lies in the northern Spessart, south of the A 66 motorway between

Hanau Hanau () is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and is part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ...

and

Schlüchtern Schlüchtern is a town in the Main-Kinzig district, in Hessen, Germany. It is located on the river Kinzig, approximately 30 km southwest of Fulda. Schlüchtern has a population close to 16,000. Location Schlüchtern is located in the '' Ber ...

. A large clearing known as the Bergfeld is within the Hessian portion of the park.

External links

www.Naturpark-Spessart.dewww.naturpark-hessischer-spessart.de
{{Coord, 49.9833, 9.4166, display=title Nature parks in Hesse Nature parks in Bavaria Aschaffenburg (district) Miltenberg (district) Main-Kinzig-Kreis Main-Spessart Spessart

See also

External links