The Petersberg (), at , is the highest point in the district of

Saalekreis Saalekreis is a district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The district seat is Merseburg. Its area is . It is bounded by (from the west and clockwise) the districts Kyffhäuserkreis (Thuringia), Mansfeld-Südharz, Salzlandkreis, Anhalt-Bitterfeld, ...

in the German state of

Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...

. Its name is derived from St. Peter's Church, which is on the hill. Until the 14th century the Petersberg was known as the Lauterberg.

Geography

The Petersberg is located about 10 kilometres north of the German city of Halle on the

River Saale The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale ( ) and Thuringian Saale (), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the Main, or the Saale ...

not quite halfway between Halle and

Köthen Köthen () is a town in Germany. It is the capital of the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld in Saxony-Anhalt, about north of Halle. Köthen is the location of the main campus and the administrative centre of the regional university, Anhalt Univers ...

. The municipality of

Petersberg Petersberg may refer to: * The Hotel Petersberg near Bonn, the site of the ** Petersberg Agreement, 1949, regarding the international status of West Germany. ** Petersberg tasks, 1992 and 1997, regarding European security cooperation. Also known as ...

with its hamlets of Drehlitz and Frößnitz lie on the hill. At the foot of the hill are the villages of Ostrau and Wallwitz as well as three small

nature reserves A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geolog ...

. On the southern slopes of the hill is a small lake. A stretch of the A 14 motorway runs past the Petersberg to the west and south, and the B 6 federal highway runs by to the southwest. They form a junction at ''Halle-Trotha'', from where the Petersberg may easily be reached.

Geology

The Petersberg is the highest point of the Halle Porphyry complex. It was formed, like the other porphyritic domes in the surrounding area, during the

Upper Carboniferous Upper may refer to: * Shoe upper or ''vamp'', the part of a shoe on the top of the foot * Stimulant, drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both * ''Upper'', the original film title for the 2013 found f ...

and Lower Permian by the solidification of numerous molten lava flows under the earth. In the slowly cooling lava, easily visible feldspar and quartz crystals were formed. The Petersberg consists of small-grained Halle porphyry – this hard rock is used mainly as a raw material for the manufacture of ballast and gravel. The present shape of the hill is a result of the last ice age. The surrounding loose rock was cleared away by the

ice sheet In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacier, glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than . The only current ice sheets are the Antarctic ice sheet and the Greenland ice sheet. Ice s ...

leaving the hard porphyritic core behind. The top of the hill stood clear of the glacier as a

nunatak A nunatak (from Inuit language, Inuit ) is the summit or ridge of a mountain that protrudes from an ice field or glacier that otherwise covers most of the mountain or ridge. They often form natural pyramidal peaks. Isolated nunataks are also cal ...

Petersberg Abbey

Petersberg Abbey with its collegiate church of St. Peter is a former Augustinian monastery. Since 1999 it has been used by an Evangelical monastic community of the Community of the Christ-Brotherhood Selbitz.

Bismarck tower

One of the 15 surviving Bismarck towers in

stands on the Petersberg. Its 15-metre-high tower was built to a design by

Wilhelm Kreis Wilhelm Kreis (17 March 1873 – 13 August 1955) was a prominent German architect and professor of architecture, active through four political systems in German history: the Wilhelmine era, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and the found ...

and inaugurated on 24 September 1902. The

observation tower An observation tower is a tower used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision to conduct long distance observations. Observation towers are usually at least tall and are made from stone, iron, and woo ...

that was badly damaged in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

was thoroughly renovated in 1999/2000, so that it is once again climbable for the first time since the war.

Communication towers

There is a communication tower on the Petersberg at which was built in 1963 and became operational on 1 May 1965. Made of reinforced concrete, the Petersberg communication tower is 119 metres high and is now operated by

Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. It was formed in 199 ...

. It broadcasts several radio programmes for the Halle region, including MDR 1 Radio Sachsen-Anhalt, MDR Sputnik and Radio SAW. There is also a seven-storey A Tower on the Petersberg which also belongs to Deutsche Telekom and has directional antennas on the roof.

Tourism

The Petersberg is a popular tourist destination. On the hill is a wildlife park with Eurasian animals. There is also a '' sommerrodelbahn'' with

toboggan A toboggan is a simple sled used in snowy winter recreation. It is also a traditional form of cargo transport used by the Innu, Cree and Ojibwe of North America, sometimes part of a dog train. It is used on snow to carry one or more people (o ...

s and similar vehicles, that is open all year round. There are regular flea markets on a festival ground on the hill as well as other events. The

E11 European long distance path The E11 European long distance path or E11 path is one of the European long-distance paths, running 4700 km (about 2900 miles) west-east from The Hague in the Netherlands through Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia to Tallinn, Estonia. It star ...

from the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Masuria Masuria ( ; ; ) is an ethnographic and geographic region in northern and northeastern Poland, known for its 2,000 lakes. Masuria occupies much of the Masurian Lake District. Administratively, it is part of the Warmian–Masurian Voivodeship (ad ...

runs close by the Petersberg.

Literature

*Otfried Wagenbreth und Walter Steiner: ''Geologische Streifzüge. Landschaft und Erdgeschichte zwischen Kap Arkona und Fichtelberg''. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, 4th edition, Leipzig, 1990, . *Peter Rothe: ''Die Geologie Deutschlands. 48 Landschaften im Portrait''. 2nd edition, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 2006, .

External links

{{Authority control Mountains and hills of Saxony-Anhalt Bismarck towers Saalekreis