The Wachtelberg: a geological treasure

Above the eight-hundred-year-old village of Dehnitz, the Wachtelberg rises to 148 metres above sea level or 35 metres above the Mulden floodplain. This very small area presents several distinctive features: landscape, rock, architecture and rare plants and animals. These highlights can be explored on the 3.8 kilometre long GeoRoute.

The geology of the Wachtelberg

From the tower, the porphyry mountains of the „Switzerland“ of Hohburg can be seen to the north behind the town of Wurzen. The Collmberg, which is formed by 500-million-year-old greywacke is located in the south-east and the Leipzig lowland bay with its 30-million-year-old lignite deposits to the south-west.
The Wachtelberg is made of pyroxene granite porphyry. This magmatic rock was formed around 285 million years ago during the formation of the Wurzen caldera. Molten rock penetrated older quartz porphyries – such as those mined today in the Lüptitz quarry – and slowly cooled below the surface of the earth. Millions of years of geological history led to the weathering of the porphyries. The ice-age glaciers abraded the rocks; meltwater sands, river gravels and loess sands were deposited. The Mulde river has been flowing in its riv-erbed between the porphyry hills since the Saale Ice Age more than 130,000 years ago.

The history of the Wachtelberg

Humans settled in the region during the Weichsel Ice Age, which began around 115,000 years ago. With the expansion of the medieval town of Wurzen, quarries for local needs were established in many porphyry hills along the Mulde between the 12th and 17th centuries. The Wachtelberg quarries produced stones for the castle and town houses. In Dehnitz itself, the stone was later used, for example, for the country inn, the mill and the railway bridge. A natural theatre was built in 1953/54 in the quarry below the Bismarck Tower, which designed by the architect Wilhelm Kreis was and built in 1908/09.

Natural history of the Wachtelberg

The dry grassland and rocky areas of the Wachtelberg have been protected since 1911 due to the naturally occurring common pasque flower. It was the first plant conservation area in Saxony. In 1954, the protection status was extended to include the animals and since 1992/94 the mountain, together with the Mühlbach valley, has been a nature reserve for rare species such as the Carthusian pink or the bloody cranesbill. The waters are home to the great crested newt and green toad, lake frog and tree frog; the Mühlbach stream is home to the kingfisher and otter.

Captions

  1. Granite porphyry quarries around the Wachtelberg at the beginning of the 19th century (Sächsisches Meilenblatt Wurzen, 1807)
  2. Bedding and ages of the rock strata near Dehnitz-Schmölen (schematic, vertically exaggerated profile sec-tion)
  3. The Bismarck tower above the granite porphyry cliffs of the historic quarry on the Wachtelberg, photo from 1932
  4. The pyroxene quartz porphyry from the quarries near Lüptitz was used to build the 19 metre high Bis-marck Tower
  5. Pyroxene granite porphyry in the foundation wall of the Dehnitz country inn with melted „rock fragments“ Large mineral crystals are formed as a result of slow cooling of the magma.
  6. Pyroxene granite porphyry, built into the Dehnitz bridge of the former Mulde Valley railway: the green tinge is the result of the transformation of minerals in the rock, such as pyroxenes.
  7.  GeoRoute Wachtelberg-Mühlbachtal:
    1. Porphyry wall (historic quarry) at the Dehnitz country inn
    2.  Goldenes Tälchen (restored bathing pond) by the Mühlenbach stream
    3.  Mulde and Mulde floodplain
    4. Dehnitzer Lache (oxbow lake of the Mulde)
    5. Wachtelberg (148 metres above sea level, nature reserve since 1911)
    6. Bismarck Tower (inaugurated in 1909)
    7. Historic quarry on the Wachtelberg
    8. Flowering pasque flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris), also known as the Easter flower
  8. View over the former family baths „Goldenes Tälchen“ to the Wachtelberg, in the background the porphyry mountains near Thallwitz (postcard motif 1930)

Imprint

  • Map 1: Sächsisches Meilenblatt no. 46 Wurzen (1807), supplemented according to GK50 Saxony (Ice Age map, 1991-1999)
  • Map 7: Nationaler Geopark Porphyrland. Steinreich in Sachsen
  • Profile section: GEOmontan GmbH Freiberg
  • Pictures: 3: Deutsche Fotothek/Nowak, Max; 4-6: Jochen Rascher; 8 Lothar Andrä
  • Postcard, Archive W. Ebert, Sächsische Heimatblätter 3/2015 p. 318
  • Graphic: Lars Hoschkara (DESIGN & MULTIMEDIA), Wermsdorf