Rochlitzer Berg is a mountain of volcanic origin in

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

, southeastern

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 ...

. It is situated south-west of the town of

Rochlitz Rochlitz (; hsb, Rochlica) is a major district town (Große Kreisstadt) in the district of Mittelsachsen, in Saxony, Germany. Rochlitz is the head of the "municipal partnership Rochlitz" (Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Rochlitz) with its other members ...

on the river

Zwickauer Mulde The Zwickauer Mulde () is a river in Saxony, Germany. It is the left tributary of the Mulde and in length. The source of the river is in the Ore Mountains, near Schöneck, in the Vogtlandkreis. It runs northeast to Aue, then northwest to Z ...

. Its elevation is variously given as 348.9 m NHN, 348 m HN or 353 m NN. The mountain is also known as ''Rochlitzer Collm''.

Geology

The so-called ''Rochlitzer Porphyr'', a

rhyolitic Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...

, which makes up a large part of the mountain, was formed from deposits of late explosive eruptions of a volcano about 250 million years ago. The colour of the rock is usually reddish to reddish-violet, occasionally also reddish brown to beige. Its texture is grainy and marked by many pore-like cavities (macro-pores). While the designation as "porphyry" has been passed down through history and is commonly used, it is petrographically incorrect. The tuff rock has been used since roughly a thousand years all over the region, also by

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

master builder A master builder or master mason is a central figure leading construction projects in pre-modern times (a precursor to the modern architect and engineer). Historically, the term has generally referred to "the head of a construction project in the ...

Arnold von Westfalen Arnold may refer to: People * Arnold (given name), a masculine given name * Arnold (surname), a German and English surname Places Australia * Arnold, Victoria, a small town in the Australian state of Victoria Canada * Arnold, Nova Scotia Uni ...

and

Hieronymus Lotter Hieronymus Lotter (* around 1497 in Nuremberg; † 22 July 1580 in Geyer / Ore Mountains) was a merchant and several times mayor of Leipzig, construction manager for important sovereign building projects in Saxony and the driving force behind e ...

. The latter used it for the Old Town Hall in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and Augustusburg castle. More recently, it was used for facing of Stadthalle

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...

and the Peasants' War Panorama near Bad Frankenhausen. Tuff was mined in up to 10 individual quarries. Since 1879 ''Vereinigte Porphyrbrüche auf dem Rochlitzer Berge'' ("United Porphyry Quarries on Rochlitzer Berg") have been responsible for the operations. Explosives have been used only since 1991 in the last operating quarry. The amount of rock to be quarried is limited for reasons of nature and landscape protection. The tuff rock of Rochlitzer Berg has been named in May 2006 as one of the 77 most important national

geotope A geotope is the geological component of the abiotic matrix present in an ecotope. Example geotopes might be an exposed outcrop of rocks, an erratic boulder, a grotto or ravine, a cave, an old stone wall marking a property boundary, and so forth. ...

s on Germany by the Academy of Geosciences in Hannover. According to a ballot led by Heinz Sielmann Foundation in 2012, "Rochlitz Porphyry" is the fourth most beautiful natural wonder in Germany.

Tourism

An instructional hiking path documenting the history of quarrying has been established on a circular route on and around Rochlitzer Berg. It offers views into the former quarries which are up to 50 m deep. A 3 km long hiking path connects the mountain with

Rochlitz Castle Rochlitz Castle or Rochlitz Palace (german: Schloss Rochlitz) lies in the west of the town of Rochlitz in the county of Mittelsachsen in the Free State of Saxony. It was built on the site of an imperial castle, erected in the second half of the ...

. A viewpoint on the southern side of the mountain offers views towards

. If the weather is favourable, the crest of the Ore Mountains with

Fichtelberg The Fichtelberg () is a mountain with two main peaks in the middle of the Ore Mountains in the east German state of Saxony, near the Czech border. At above sea level, the Fichtelberg is the highest mountain in Saxony, the second highest in the ...

mountain can also be seen. A memorial stone, commemorating the return of King

Frederick Augustus I of Saxony pl, Fryderyk August Józef Maria Antoni Jan Nepomucen Alojzy Ksawery , image = Frederick Augustus I of Saxony by Marcello Bacciarelli (ca 1808-1809).png , caption = Portrait by Marcello Bacciarelli (1809) , succession = King of Saxony , coron ...

from

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

n captivity after the

Battle of the Nations The Battle of Leipzig (french: Bataille de Leipsick; german: Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig, ); sv, Slaget vid Leipzig), also known as the Battle of the Nations (french: Bataille des Nations; russian: Битва народов, translit=Bitva ...

, was erected in 1815 at the instigation of quarry owner Seidel and other sponsors. The observation tower ''Friedrich-August-Turm'', designed by the well-known

Freiberg Freiberg is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany. It is a so-called ''Große Kreisstadt'' (large county town) and the administrative centre of Mittelsachsen district. Its historic town centre has been placed under heritage c ...

art master Eduard Heuchler and erected in 1860, was dedicated to king

Frederick Augustus II of Saxony , image = Friedrich August II of Saxony.jpg , caption = Portrait by Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein , image_size = 220px , reign = 6 June 1836 – 9 August 1854 , coronation = , predecessor = Anthony , ...

who died in an accident in 1854. In the 1860s it served as a first-order station No. 17 of the Royal Saxon

Triangulation In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by forming triangles to the point from known points. Applications In surveying Specifically in surveying, triangulation involves only angle me ...

. The stone column with the

benchmark Benchmark may refer to: Business and economics * Benchmarking, evaluating performance within organizations * Benchmark price * Benchmark (crude oil), oil-specific practices Science and technology * Benchmark (surveying), a point of known elevati ...

is still preserved on the observation platform. A restaurant has existed on Rochlitzer Berg since 1861, the current restaurant ''Türmerhaus'' ("Tower Watchman's House") was newly built in 2002. It can be reached from the parking lot by a short walk uphill.

Events

The music event ''Performance zum Stein'' takes place every year in one of the former quarries, where ''Mittelsächsische Philharmonie'' and other bodies of sound present classical and experimental pieces. The local sports club VfA (Verein für Ausdauersport) Rochlitzer Berg e.V. organises yearly footraces on

New Year's Day New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Wh ...

and on the Sundays next to the spring equinox and the

autumn equinox Autumnal equinox or variations, may refer to: * September equinox, the autumnal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere * March equinox, the autumnal equinox in the Southern Hemisphere Other uses * Autumnal Equinox Day (Japanese: 秋分の日, ''Shūbu ...

over distances of 3.5, 10.5, and 21 km (the latter only in autumn).

References

External links

* {{cite web , url = http://www.umwelt.sachsen.de/umwelt/geologie/9997.htm , title = Der Rochlitzer Berg , author = Sächsisches Landesamt für Umwelt, Landwirtschaft und Geologie , language = German Description of the geotope Mountains of Saxony

Berg Berg may refer to: People *Berg (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) *Berg Ng (born 1960), Hong Kong actor * Berg (footballer) (born 1989), Brazilian footballer Former states *Berg (state), county and duchy of the Holy ...

Geology

Tourism

Events

References

Further reading

External links