Kössern: „The village of the master builders“

The Grossbothen porphyry hill country

Around 290 million years ago, the region between Rochlitz and Grimma was characterised by intense volcanism, which left behind a collapse depression (Rochlitz caldera) with a diameter of more than 30 km. The Rochlitz porphyry and the reddish Rochlitz porphyry tuff used in Kössern were also formed in the process.
More than 20 million years ago during the Tertiary period, the waves of the ‘primeval North Sea’ crashed against these volcanic rocks. Lignite formed in coastal moors used to be excavated in the Thümmlitz Forest. Over the course of millions of years, the porphyry weathered at the surface to form kaolin (porcelain clay). This raw material for the ceramic industry was also mined near Förstgen until the 1980s.
The northern European inland ice glaciers advanced over the region several times during the Pleistocene (Ice Age), exposing the porphyry rocks and giving the earth’s surface the ‘finishing touch’: today’s Grossbothen porphyry hill country was born.

The village of the master builders

Over two thousand years ago, Slavs settled in the climatically favoured Mulde floodplain south of Grimma. Since the late Middle Ages, the densely wooded area was a favourite hunting ground for the Saxon aristocracy. The Kössern manor, owned by the noble von Erdmannsdorff family since 1639, is located in the immediate vicinity of the Thümmlitzwald forest. Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff (1736-1800), architect of the classicist palace and park complexes in Dessau and Wörlitz, spent his youth there.
The owner of the manor, Wolff Dietrich von Erdmannsdorff (1648-1723), planned a residence for the courtly hunts in Kössern. From 1703, several functional buildings were constructed, as well as dozens of residential houses for craftsmen and estate labourers – a kind of early type housing estate. At the centre of the Baroque building ensemble, the Kössern hunting lodge stands out with its excellent façade design. It was probably designed by the Dresden Zwinger master builder Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann (1662-1736). The building, which was also magnificently decorated on the inside, was completed in 1711. At the back of the residence, stretched the walled Baroque garden, laid out in strict symmetry according to the French fashion of the time.
Even today, the nearby Thümmlitzwald forest bears witness to the beginnings of planned forestry according to the ideas of Tharandt forestry pioneer Johann Heinrich Cotta (1763-1844). The cultural landscape along the fast-flowing Mulde river is a popular tourist destination for hikers, cyclists and canoeists.

A walk through Kössern and the surrounding area

The 5 km circular route through Kössern and on to Förstgen, to Lake Thümmlitz and back can be hiked in around 1.5 hours. It also offers cycling and hiking connections to the ‘Path of Rocks’ along the Mulde river to Grimma (approx. 8 km), to the five metre high menhir – a man-made cult stone (‘menhir’) – in the Thümmlitz forest (approx. 5 km), to the Wilhelm Ostwald Park with the former villa of the Nobel Prize-winning chemist W. Ostwald (1853-1932) and the geoportal ‘Clay for Ceramics’ Schaddelmühle to the Geopark Porphyry Land (approx. 4 km each).

Impressum

Cocept and texts: In co-operation with the Grimma District Museum and the association ‘Das Jagdhaus – Dorfentwicklungs- und Kulturverein Kössern / Förstgen’;
Photos: Marion Geißler, Deutsche Fotothek Dresden: Sächsisches Meilenblatt, Berliner Ausgabe, Petra Kästner, Bastian Rakow, ‘Das Jagdhaus – Dorfentwicklungs- und Kulturverein Kössern / Förstgen’ e. V.;
Geological section and map: GEOmontan GmbH Freiberg;
Design: Lars Hoschkara, DESIGN & MULTIMEDIA (Wermsdorf)

Captions

  • Deposition and age of the rock layers in the Mulde valley near Kössern.
  • Rochlitz porphyry, a volcanic ‘welded tuff’ (ignimbrite), formed from a gas-ash-magma mixture ejected by a pyroclastic eruption.
  • Kössern with its baroque buildings on the Saxon mileage map from 1804; the quarries in the Grimma porphyry are shown in orange.
  • The Kössern manor above the Mulde floodplain, rebuilt in 1871 in the neo-Renaissance style and today a popular event location.
  • Wolff Dietrich von Erdmannsdorff, born in Kössern in 1648, head court huntsman at the Dresden court of Elector Friedrich August I (‘Augustus the Strong’) in an oil painting by Kössern artist Karl-Heinrich Vogel
  • Large banqueting hall in the baroque hunting lodge with ceiling painting based on motifs from ancient mythology, presumably by the painter Christian Männich(en) from Kössern.
  • Hunting lodge with baroque garden and craftsmen’s houses in a painting by the Kössern artist Karl-Heinrich Vogel
  • Kössern manor: 16th – 19th century
  • Bridge toll house (1888)
  • Kössern Chapel (1928)
  • Fire engine house (1900)
  • Lake Thümmlitz (1075)
  • Forester’s lodge (1725)
  • Craftsmen’s houses (1703 – 1709)
  • Kössern hunting lodge (1709 – 1711)
  • Cavalier’s house (1718)
  • Inn ‘Zum Hirsch’ (approx. 1860)