The Schmücke, also called the Kahle Schmücke, is a hill ridge up to and only about 7 km² in area.Area measurement usin
Geopfade
(kmz, 10 kB) It lies within the districts of

Kyffhäuserkreis The Kyffhäuserkreis is a district in the northern part of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are the districts Mansfeld-Südharz, Saalekreis and Burgenlandkreis in Saxony-Anhalt, and the districts Sömmerda, Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis and E ...

and

Sömmerda Sömmerda () is a town near Erfurt in Thuringia, Germany, on the Unstrut river. It is the capital of the Sömmerda (district), district of Sömmerda. History Archeological digs in the area that is now Sömmerda, formerly Leubingen, have uncove ...

in the German state of

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

Geography

Together with the

Hohe Schrecke The Hohe Schrecke is a ridge of hills in central Germany. It lies mainly within Thuringia; however, the southeastern part around Lossa belongs to the state of Saxony-Anhalt. Geography Together with the Schmücke, the Finne and the Hainleite, th ...

, the Finne and the

Hainleite The Hainleite is a Muschelkalk ridge of hills up to in northern Thuringia, Germany. Geography This heavily wooded landscape lies between Bleicherode in Nordhausen district, Sondershausen in Kyffhäuser district, Bad Frankenhausen, Dingel ...

, the Schmücke borders the northern rim of the

Thuringian Basin The Thuringian Basin () is a depression (geology), depression in the central and northwest part of Thuringia in Germany which is crossed by several rivers, the longest of which is the Unstrut. It stretches about from north to south and around fro ...

. It lies between

Hauteroda Hauteroda is a village and a former municipality in the district Kyffhäuserkreis, in Thuringia, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea ...

, Oberheldrungen,

Heldrungen Heldrungen is a town and a former municipality in the Kyffhäuserkreis district, Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 January 2019, it is part of the town An der Schmücke. Nearby rivers are the Unstrut and the Wipper. It is known for its fortification ...

, Heldrungen station,

Gorsleben Gorsleben is a village and a former municipality in the district Kyffhäuserkreis, in Thuringia, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea ...

and

Hemleben Hemleben is a village and a former municipality in the district Kyffhäuserkreis, in Thuringia, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to ...

. It is separated from the Hainleite in the west by the Sachsenburg Gate (''Sachsenburger Pforte'').

Hills

The hills of the Schmücke include the following, sorted by height in

metre The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

s (m) above NHN: * Künzelsberg (380.1 m), between Hauteroda and Beichlingen, Kyffhäuserkreis/Sömmerda district * Monraburg (377.0 m), near Burgwenden, Sömmerda district * Wendenburg (353.8 m), near Burgwenden, Sömmerda district → ''for these and other mountains and elevations see the

Schmücke The Schmücke, also called the Kahle Schmücke, is a hill ridge up to and only about 7 km² in area.Area measurement usinGeopfade(kmz, 10 kB) It lies within the districts of Kyffhäuserkreis and Landkreis Sömmerda, Sömmerda in the Ger ...

section of the article "List of mountains and hills in Thuringia"'' The surface of much of the Schmücke is fissured by ancient

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to manage their safet ...

Transport

In 2008, the 1,729 m long

Schmücke Tunnel The Schmücke, also called the Kahle Schmücke, is a hill ridge up to and only about 7 km² in area.Area measurement usinGeopfade(kmz, 10 kB) It lies within the districts of Kyffhäuserkreis and Landkreis Sömmerda, Sömmerda in the Ger ...

was built to take the A71 motorway under the Schmücke.

Conservation

On 30 April 2013, the western part of the Schmücke south of Heldrungen together with the adjacent forests and southern slopes was designated a

nature conservation Nature conservation is the ethic/moral philosophy and conservation movement focused on protecting species from extinction, maintaining and restoring habitats, enhancing ecosystem services, and protecting biological diversity. A range of values ...

. This also includes parts of the municipalities of Heldrungen, Oberheldrungen, Gorsleben and Hemleben. The nature reserve has an area of around 550 hectares.''Die Kahle Schmücke bei Heldrungen''
press release by the State Management Office (''Landesverwaltungsamt''), vom 1 May 2013, retrieved 26 November 2014, at kyffhaeuser-nachrichten.de The landscape is characterized by a patchwork of

dry grassland The key characteristic of dry grasslands is that they have low-growing plants, causing the area to be quite open. They also have a mottled structure, which leads to a biome with sunny or semi-shaded areas. On top of that, their soil is relatively ...

, chalk heathland, pastureland, clearance cairns,

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

s and arable fields. Medieval mining pits stretch along the ridge of the ridge. The size and diversity of the various heat- and dry-loving biotopes as well as their rarity provide habitats for a large number of animals and plants that have adapted to these dry conditions, which is particularly important for ''inter alia'' wild bees,

grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grassh ...

and

butterflies Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

. In winter,

western barbastelle The western barbastelle (''Barbastella barbastellus''), also known as the barbastelle or barbastelle bat, is a European bat in the genus '' Barbastella''. This species is found from Portugal to Azerbaijan and from Sweden to Canary Islands, where ...

s find shelter here, which is why the area is currently considered the largest known hibernation roost for this species of bat in Thuringia. Day trippers and hikers prefer the Schmücke because of its beauty and the extraordinary views over the

. Hiking and cycling on the existing paths as well as horse riding on marked

bridleway A bridle path, also bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, ride, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now serve a wider ...

s are popular activities. The area is also used by

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer ...

forester A forester is a person who practises forest management and forestry, the science, art, and profession of managing forests. Foresters engage in a broad range of activities including ecological restoration and management of protected areas. Fores ...

s and

hunter Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, ...

Climate

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmucke (Hohenzug) Hills of Thuringia Forests and woodlands of Thuringia