Hirschau () is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
in the
Amberg-Sulzbach
Amberg-Sulzbach ( bar, label=Northern Bavarian, Amberg-Suizboch) is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in Bavaria, Germany. It surrounds but does not include the city of Amberg. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Neustadt ...
district,
Upper Palatinate
The Upper Palatinate (german: Oberpfalz, , ) is one of the seven administrative districts of Bavaria, Germany, and is located in the east of Bavaria.
Geography
The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and numerous ponds and lakes ...
,
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 ...
,
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 ...
.
Geography
Hirschau lies directly on the
Bundesstraße 14
{{Infobox road
, country = DEU
, type = B
, route = 14
, map = B014 Verlauf.svg
, map_notes =
, length_km = 464
, direction_a = West
, terminus_a =
, direction_b = East
, terminus_b =
, states = ...
(Nuremberg - Rozvadov), 13 km northeast of
Amberg
Amberg () is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in the Upper Palatinate, roughly halfway between Regensburg and Bayreuth. In 2020, over 42,000 people lived in the town.
History
The town was first mentioned in 1034, at that time under t ...
and about 65 km east of
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
. Apart from the main village Hirschau, the municipality consists of the following villages:
*Burgstall
*Dienhof
*Ehenfeld
*Krickelsdorf
*Kricklhof
*Krondorf
*Massenricht
*Obersteinbach
*Steiningloh
*Untersteinbach
*Weiher
Economy
Kaolin
Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral ...
, used for the production of
porcelain
Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainl ...
, has been mined at Hirschau since 1901. Interesting is the
Monte Kaolino
Monte Kaolino is a sand dune in Hirschau, Bavaria, Germany. It consists of of sand, a by-product of kaolinite production over the years. The sand dune is now used as a ski resort for sand skiing and sandboarding, in addition to other activiti ...
, a 120 meter high mound made from 32,000,000 tons of
quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...
sand from excess sand in years of operation. It is now used as a (sand) skiing/camping resort during the summer months. It is also the place where the yearly
Sandboarding
Sandboarding is a boardsport and extreme sport similar to snowboarding that involves riding across or down a sand dune while standing on a board, either with both feet strapped in or while standing loose, without bindings. Sandboarding can also ...
Championships are held.
References
Amberg-Sulzbach
{{AmbergSulzbach-geo-stub