Spessart Nature Park () is a

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

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 the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

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

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

and

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, and covers an area of 2,440 km² within the German mountain range known as the

Spessart Spessart () is a ''Mittelgebirge'', a range of low wooded mountains, in the States of Bavaria and Hesse in Germany. It is bordered by the Vogelsberg, Rhön and Odenwald. The highest elevation is the Geiersberg (Spessart), Geiersberg at 586 metre ...

. 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 Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. These ...

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), multiple rivers with the same name *Ma'in, an ancient kingdom in modern-day Yemen * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *Spanish Main, the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territ ...

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

and

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

. 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