Zittau Mountains

Oybin surrounded by upland forest

Narrow gauge railway near Oybin Niederdorf

The Nonnenfelsen (Nun's Rock) near Jonsdorf

The Zittau Mountains (German: Zittauer Gebirge, Czech: Žitavské hory), formerly also called the Lusatian Ridge (Lausitzer Kamm), refer to the German part of the Lusatian Mountains that straddle the Saxon-Bohemian border in the extreme southeast of the German state of Saxony.

Geography

Location

The Zittau Mountains lie in the extreme south of the district of Görlitz in Saxony. A few kilometres north of the range lie a number of settlements; from west to east they are Großschönau, Hainewalde, Olbersdorf, Bertsdorf-Hörnitz and Zittau. In the mountains themselves are, again from west to east, the settlements of Waltersdorf, Oybin, Jonsdorf and Lückendorf . The highlands are drained by streams that flow roughly north into the Mandau, a western tributary of the Lusatian Neisse.

Mountains

Among the highest mountains in the range are the following (in order of height in m above NN:^[1]

• Lausche (Luž; 792.6 m), German-Czech border mountain, south of Waltersdorf
• Hochwald (Hvozd; 749.5 m), German-Czech border mountain, south-southwest of Oybin
• Jonsberg (652.9 m), east-southeast of Jonsdorf
• Buchberg (651.6 m), west of Jonsdorf
• Scharfenstein (569.4 m), east of Oybin, north-northwest of Lückendorf
• Breiteberg (510.1 m), east of Großschönau, south of Hainewalde
• Oybin (514.5 m), north of Oybin
• Töpfer (582.0 m), northeast of Oybin, south of Olbersdorf

Places of interest

• Oybin mountain with castle and monastery ruins
• Mühlsteinbrüche, rock formations in Jonsdorf
• Große Felsengasse ("Great Rock Alley")
• Töpfer mountain
• Lausche (792.6m), the highest summit in the Zittau Mountains
• Breiteberg
• Scharfenstein
• Orgel (organ) - a rock formation in the Jonsdorfer Felsenstadt
• Kelchstein ("Chalice Rock") a mushroom rock formation
• Nonnenfelsen ("Nun's Rock") near Jonsdorf
• Zittau Narrow Gauge Railway
• Lusatian timber-frame farmhouses (Umgebindehäuser), especially in Waltersdorf, Jonsdorf and Bertsdorf

See also

• Zittau Mountains Nature Park
• List of regions of Saxony

References

1. Map services Archived December 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine of the BfN

General sources

• BfN
  • Map services
  • Landscape fact file Zittau Mountains

Literature

• Peter Rölke (ed.): Wander- & Naturführer Zittauer Gebirge, Berg- & Naturverlag Rölke, Dresden 2006, ISBN 3-934514-17-0

External links

• Zittau Mountains
• private website about the mountains
• Mountain biking in the Zittau Mountains
• Digital climbing guide to the Zittau Mountains
• Lusatian Mountains