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75-765: The Merzalbe rises in the middle of the Palatine Forest , west of the Palatine Watershed and between the two hills of the Weißenberg and the Eschkopf at a height of just under 500 metres. Its source is enclosed by the Christelbrunnen well. As it heads in a southwesterly direction the Merzalbe flows through the valley below the village of Leimen and then through Merzalben . After 12 km (7.5 mi) it empties from

150-553: A Palatine geographer and local historian. Prior to 1850, there was no overall name for the Palatine's bunter sandstone mountains Historical territorial factors, rather than geographical ones, governed perceptions at the time. By contrast, the Celts and Romans viewed the entire mountain range west of the Rhine as a single unit, making no distinction between different parts of the region that, today,

225-627: A border, this time between East Francia (later the Kingdom of Germany ) to the east and the Kingdom of Burgundy-Arles to the west. By 1033 both kingdoms had been incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire . Thereafter local subdivisions started to become more important, which on the Arlésien side meant the County of Burgundy , and from 1042 also the County of Montbéliard ( German : Grafschaft Mömpelgard );

300-574: A line from Eisenberg via Göllheim and Börrstadt to Otterberg near Kaiserslautern . The hill country between the Haardt and the Upper Rhine Plain, where Palatine wines are grown, is known as the Weinstrasse . The German Wine Route runs through this zone of hills. The St. Ingbert-Kaiserslauten Depression runs up to the northwestern Palatinate Forest from west-southwest to east-northeast into which

375-537: A long time, to refer to the entire range on the west bank of the Rhine, at the beginning of the 20th century, it gradually became restricted to the Alsatian part of the sandstone mountains, whilst the term Pfälzerwald ("Palatinate Forest") became increasingly used to refer to the Palatine part. This led to the Palatinate Forest and Vosges being defined as separate and distinct landscapes. However, in recent decades, in

450-611: A plateau bounded by deeply incised valleys. This plateau also runs towards the west at a height of about 500 m before descending gradually to 400 m. It is bisected by the Schwarzbach and Moosalb rivers. To the southwest other ridges separate the valleys of the Merzalbe and the headstreams of the Wieslauter . It is therefore possible to walk from Neustadt an der Weinstraße to Leimen or Kaiserslautern-Mölschbach without dropping below

525-400: A result of further depositions of sand, rock layers of up to 500 metres thickness were formed. This led inter alia , through the addition of iron oxide, to a variable colouration of the rock strata – hence the name "bunter" sandstone ( bunter being German for "coloured") – and, depending on the type and binding of the material, (clay-bound sandstone as opposed to silicified quartz sandstone) to

600-411: A significant decline in population and the total number of settlements fell sharply (leaving abandoned villages ), as a result of wars and economic circumstances. Thus, during the colonization of the mountains, areas were often cleared that, because of the nutrient-poor sandy soils, were unsuitable for farming and had to be abandoned after a short period because of overuse and overexploitation . Also,

675-655: A significantly different relief and is no longer fully forested. It not only stretches around the western edge of the Palatinate Forest, but also further south around the Vosges. From the area of Lemberg in Lorraine, it also forms the watershed between the Moselle and the Upper Rhine; the southern part of the region being drained completely via the Moder system to the Upper Rhine. To the south,

750-507: Is no Misplaced Pages article. Characteristic of the Lower and Middle Bunter are V-shaped valleys , with narrow floors and steep sides, cutting deeply into the bedrock. They are the typical valley forms in the central Palatinate Forest, whilst in the southern and northern parts, U-shaped valleys with wider floors predominate. In the southwestern part of the Forest are the so-called woog valleys, in which

825-692: Is the Palatinate Forest and the Vosges . The range was named after the Celtic forest god Vosegus and is recorded in many Roman manuscripts as "silva vosegus" or "mons vosegus". It was from this linguistic root that, during the Middle Ages, the name Vosges emerged in the French-speaking area and Wasgen or Wasigenwald , later also Wasgau , in the German-speaking region. So while the term Wasgen continued, for

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900-949: Is the area of relatively flat terrain in France between the Vosges Mountains to the north and the Jura Mountains to the south, connecting Franche-Comté in the West and Alsace in the east. It marks the watershed between the drainage basins of the River Rhône to the west and the River Rhine to the east. It is thus part of the European Watershed between the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea . Its elevation varies between its lowest level in

975-521: Is to develop the nature park and its eponymous biosphere reserve equally and to maintain its uniqueness and beauty as well as its national recreational value. Since 1997, the head office of the association has been in Lambrecht . The Palatinate Forest Nature Park was recognized in 1992 by UNESCO as a biosphere reserve . In 1998 it became the German part of the first cross-border UNESCO biosphere reserve, namely

1050-465: The Altschlossfelsen , fractures , overhangs and honeycomb weathering can also be observed. By contrast, felsenmeers and blockfields tend to be found more in the central Palatine Forest. The highest points in this low mountain range occur in the central Palatinate Forest, and mainly in the east. Here, in a single, contiguous ridge is a series of peaks exceeding the 600 metre mark, of which

1125-647: The Burgundians settled it and established the Kingdom of the Burgundians to the west. In the early 6th century, both Burgundy and Alemannia were conquered by the Kingdom of Francia , but the Belfort Gap remained the linguistic border between Germanic and Romance languages . Francia grew to become the Carolingian Empire until it fell apart in the late ninth century, whereupon the Belfort Gap again became

1200-703: The Hohenstaufen dynasty in the Palatinate region . The keep or bergfried is unique because of its heptagonal footprint. Tourist route – the German Shoe Road runs parallel to the Merzalb valley through Merzalben and Leimen; it is part of the Franco-German Tourist Route . Palatine Forest The Palatinate Forest ( German : Pfälzerwald [ˈpfɛltsɐvalt] ), sometimes also called

1275-642: The Kraichgau . Only the Burgundian Gate beyond the Vosges forms an orographically clear border on the left bank of the Rhine. The Palatinate Forest can be divided into three areas. The Palatinate Forest is a major (3rd level) natural region within the Palatine-Saarland Scarplands (a 2nd order major region) and runs south as far as the Col de Saverne , i.e. far into French territory, where it continues as

1350-539: The Palatinate Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve . It thus became the 12th of (as at 2009) 15 German biosphere reserves. These are areas that have a special significance for the global conservation of biological diversity and in which the ecological aspects, sustainable economic management, environmental education and environmental research are best linked together. In 2007, the state of Rhineland–Palatinate issued an ordinance by which

1425-649: The Palatine Forest , is a low-mountain region in southwestern Germany , located in the Palatinate in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . The forest is a designated nature park ( German : Naturpark Pfälzerwald ) covering 1,771 km and its highest elevation is the Kalmit (672.6 m). Together with the northern part of the adjacent Vosges Mountains in France it forms the UNESCO -designated Palatinate Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve . The Palatinate Forest, together with

1500-519: The Quaternary period (2.8 to 0.01 million years ago) erosion processes once more dominated. In particular, it was the weathering and removal processes that occurred during the various cold and warm periods that determined the final topographical shape of the Palatinate Forest. Characteristic of this is a system of deeply incised valleys, especially in the north and centre, diverse mountain shapes and bizarre rock formations. Gneisses and slates form

1575-556: The Tyrol and Swabia and the settlement of Huguenot and Mennonite religious refugees from Switzerland, France and the Netherlands. From then to the end of the 18th century, the population expanded as a result of the better design of farms (such as the Frankish house ) and the expansion of villages ( clustered village or Haufendörfer ). This development, however, meant that the resources of

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1650-765: The Upper Rhine Plain and the Middle Rhine Valley. Lines of communication that traverse the Belfort Gap include the French Route nationale 83 and the A36 autoroute , the railway line from Basel to Paris and the LGV Rhin-Rhône high-speed railway, as well as the Rhône-Rhine Canal . The Belfort Gap is first recorded as playing a military role in 58 BC, when Julius Caesar marched his army through it to confront

1725-758: The Vosges ridge. This often goes unrecognized as a result of the French border; hence the French southern part of the natural region is often, wrongly, counted as part of the North Vosges. The important subdivisions of these bunter sandstone mountains were drawn up in the 1950s and 1960s in the Handbook of the Natural Region Divisions of Germany and 1:200,000 map sheets by the German Federal Institute for Regional Studies. Despite that, some deviation in

1800-585: The Vosges south of the French border, from which it has no morphological separation, is part of a single central upland region of about 8,000 km in area, that runs from the Börrstadt Basin (a line from Winnweiler via Börrstadt and Göllheim ) to the Burgundian Gate (on the line Belfort – Ronchamp – Lure ) and which forms the western boundary of the Upper Rhine Plain . This landscape forms, in turn,

1875-776: The Weinbiet (554.0 m), and the Eckkopf (516.0 m) near Deidesheim . North of the Isenach only the Rahnfels (516.5 m) breaks through the 500 metre contour. In its continuation to the north its descends from 400 to 300 metres above sea level. South of the Queich the countryside changes due to the somewhat different geological situation (see Landscape character ). Here larger erosion surfaces and rather isolated hillforms (conical hills), which on average reach heights of 450 metres, characterize

1950-519: The Wissembourg Gap and then swept down the length of Alsace and laid siege to Belfort , hoping to seize the city and then rush on through the Belfort Gap into central France. The siege ended up dragging on for months, and an armistice was signed before it could be brought to a decisive conclusion. The wider war had delivered a conclusive result, however, and under the resulting Treaty of Versailles (1871) Alsace and Lorraine were ceded by France to

2025-505: The 19th century (the Ludwig Railway and Landau–Zweibrücken line ) brought some improvement in the situation, because it became possible to commute to towns outside the Palatinate Forest and seek employment in one of the emerging industries (e.g. BASF at Ludwigshafen ) outside the region. In the 20th century, the general economic structural changes in Germany also affected the region of

2100-519: The 450 metre contour line. North of the line from Hochspeyerbach to Speyerbach the highest points are the 570.8 m high Drachenfels and the Hoher Stoppelkopf ( Stoppelkopf ; 566.2 m). In the triangle formed by the Isenach to the north and German Wine Route to the east are other hills over 500 metres in height. The most prominent are Neustadt's northern local hill ( Hausberg ),

2175-721: The Doubs valley at 315 m (1,033 ft) in Montbéliard , and Mont Salbert 651 m (2,136 ft). The roughly 40 km (25 mi) wide terrain or according to others the 20 km wide corridor of the Belfort gap connects the French département of Haut-Rhin , south of the région Alsace and the Territoire de Belfort , north of the région Franche-Comté and borders the departments of Haute-Saône, and Doubs. The passage allows warm Mediterranean air flows to advect northeastwards into

2250-496: The Earth's crust occurred (passive rifting ). At the same time the sides of the newly created lowlands were uplifted, in the case of the Palatinate Forest, to a height of about 1000 metres. These processes, which continue today, have had four important implications for the present landscape of the low mountain region: In the later Paleogene (34 to 23.8 million years ago) and Neogene (23.8 to 2.8 million years ago) and also in

2325-641: The Forest descends in a clear escarpment, especially into the boggy lowland of the Landstuhl Bruch west of Kaiserslautern. To the west of the Großer Hausberg, the Westrich Plateau separates from the Palatinate Forest at the sharp southern boundary of the Landstuhler Bruch in a comparatively smooth transition. It reaches comparable heights in the transition area, but as a muschelkalk plateau it has

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2400-748: The Germanic chieftain Ariovistus , whom he defeated at the Battle of the Vosges probably fought in the vicinity of modern Mulhouse . Over the following decades the area west of the Rhine was incorporated into the Roman Empire . When the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century, the Germanic Alemanni settled in the area immediately east of the Belfort Gap during the ensuing Migration Period , while

2475-466: The Great Kalmit , at 672.6 m, is also the highest point of the entire Palatinate Forest. The ridge begins at the Steigerkopf (also called the Schänzel ) (about 500 m) and heads westwards to the Frankenweide region around the Eschkopf (609.9 m) and Weißenberg (609.9 m). This massif extends from the town of Hochspeyer via Johanniskreuz to Hauenstein . Its central area between Johanniskreuz and Hermersbergerhof rather resembles

2550-429: The Lower and Middle Bunter have produced a scarpland relief, whose cuestas characterize the landscape, especially in the north and east, whilst the southeastern part of the Palatinate Forest is dominated by rather isolated types of hill separated by erosion surfaces. In the bunter sandstone mountains a wide variety of hill shapes may be observed, depending on the various rock strata of which they are composed. Typical of

2625-434: The Palatinate Forest, which was increasingly integrated into the overall economic and transport systems . Secluded forest farming villages became municipalities with a service character through the building of infrastructure (e.g. public transport), and, in many cases, the villagers now no longer worked locally, but in more distant regional centres, such as Ludwigshafen and Kaiserslautern. By contrast local industries in

2700-428: The Sundgau to the Kingdom of France and the Belfort Gap therefore became the border between Alsace and Habsburg Franche-Comté, but not for long: under the 1678 Treaties of Nijmegen France acquired Franche-Comté too. The Belfort Gap acquired renewed significance in the series of Franco-German wars in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During the Franco-Prussian War , the Prussian army invaded France via

2775-479: The UNESCO guidelines for the design of biosphere reserves would be implemented specifically for the Palatinate Forest Nature Park. This laid down a zoning scheme as its main focus, which envisaged three zones with different objectives and protection functions: The "quiet zones" ( Stillezonen ) also covered in the law are intended to ensure a "recreation in the stillness", but are not part of the UNESCO guidelines for biosphere reserves. The concept originates rather from

2850-443: The appearance of the countryside. Over the millennia, the weathering and erosion of the sandstone, with its varying degrees of hardness, have produced bizarre rock formations, e. g. rock pinnacles , rock faces, rock walls and rock blocks. In addition, the small-scale weathering of strata of differing hardness has produced caves , natural arches and table rocks ( Devil's Table ). On the almost two-kilometre-long rock terrace of

2925-442: The bedrock of the Palatinate Forest today, but they are generally covered by younger rock formations, cropping out only in a few places on the eastern edge of the mountains. These rock strata cover the bedrock and consist, in addition to sandstone , of shale and marl . They generally have a softer consistency and therefore form broad valleys and erosion surfaces in the northern Palatinate Forest (the Stumpfwald ) as well as in

3000-457: The beginning of the Palaeogene period of the Cenozoic era (66 to 23.8 million years ago) the formation of the Alps led to considerable tensions in the Earth's crust , which, in their forelands to the north of the Alps, caused a bulge in the mantle and crust. At the apex of the arch so formed, there were considerable tensile stresses, so that the rock layers were stretched and about 35 million years ago, deep cracks and depressions in

3075-445: The cities in the Rhine valley which were then suffering badly from air pollution. The nature park expansion programme envisaged 95 car parks, 13 camp sites, seven observation towers and five open-air pools. In fact, 62 woodland car parks were created in the first seven years as well as 530 benches and as many waste bins. A total of 370 km of walking routes were added or created and 45 signed circular walks laid out. The management of

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3150-427: The context of European integration (the Schengen Agreement ), there has been an increasing trend to regard the entire mountain complex as a single geographical entity again. Evidence of this changed attitude can be seen, for example, in the establishment in 1998 of the first cross-border biosphere reserve, the Palatinate Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO . Whilst there are traces of human activities in

3225-455: The core area in the biosphere reserve, with its mixed stands of primeval beech, oak and pine. The Palatinate Forest is primarily characterised by a block of bunter sandstone and its underlying formations of Zechstein . The tectonically formed bedding of these rock types and their subsequent erosion led to the topography of this low mountain range that we see today. In the Permian geological period (about 296–251 million years ago)

3300-401: The eastern part of the very extensive eastern scarplands of France, which, on German soil, take in large parts of the Palatinate and the Saarland, with older (e.g. on the Donnersberg ) and younger strata ( muschelkalk , e.g. the Westrich Plateau ). While the boundaries of the Palatinate Forest are comparatively clearly defined to the north and east, the transition to neighbouring landscapes to

3375-489: The edges of today's Palatinate Forest, there was increasing population pressure in the Middle Ages (10th to 13th century), especially through the initiatives of the nobility and the church , e.g. through the establishment of monasteries such as the Cistercian abbeys of Otterberg (1144) and Eußerthal (1148), the colonization and development of the mountains. Areas that could be used for agriculture were cleared and settled permanently. This development reached its peak in

3450-418: The establishment of the Palatinate Forest Nature Park and, later the Palatinate Forest-North Vosges Biosphere Reserve . The Palatinate Forest Nature Park was created in 1958 as the third nature park in Germany. In accordance with the requirements of the originator of the nature park concept, Alfred Toepfer , the Palatinate Forest was to be a place of recreation and exercise for the stressed office workers of

3525-446: The expansion of recreational facilities was viewed as complete and attention switched to the care of biotopes and the landscape in the centre. Increasingly there was also a desire to replace the many coniferous monocultures , planted as a result of war, wartime reparations and times of crisis, with species rich site-specific mixed forests . On 20 July 1982 the Palatinate Forest Nature Park Association ( Verein Naturpark Pfälzerwald )

3600-424: The first sandstone formations, some 100 metres thick, were deposited in the area of today's Palatinate Forest; in particular, the rock units of the Rotliegendes and the Zechstein (about 256–251 million years ago) are important. At the beginning of the Germanic Triassic , i.e. from the Lower to the beginning of the Middle Triassic, there was (about 251–243 million years ago) a desert-like climate, so that as

3675-445: The formation of rock layers of different hardness. This resulted in the subgroups of lower, middle and upper bunter sandstone. These bunter sandstone formations were buried by various types of sediments in the adjacent sections of muschelkalk (243–235 million years ago) and keuper (234–200 million years ago), and also during the Jurassic (200–142 million years ago) and Cretaceous (142–66 million years ago). At

3750-421: The further impoverishment of the population. Occupations that the forest itself supported, such as lumberjacks , charcoal burners , rafters , resin burners (pitch boilers) and ash burners, supported only a meagre existence. After large population losses during the Thirty Years' War , the population was initially restored and stabilized in the late 17th century, initially as a result of settler migration from

3825-411: The highest points in the southwest. The category structure of the list is based on the concept for the natural region division of the Palatine Forest . The important summits of the range are annotated with their corresponding landscape subdivision and arranged according to their height in metres (m) above sea level (NHN) . The nearest settlement is given for lesser known hills or those for which there

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3900-407: The landscape. The highest points on the German side of the Wasgau are the Rehberg (576.8 m) near Annweiler, the castle hill of the ruins of Wegelnburg (570.9 m) near Nothweiler , followed by the Hohe Derst (560.5 m) west of Bad Bergzabern and the Großer Eyberg (513.0 m) southwest of Dahn . The Hohe List (475.8 m) and Erlenkopf (472.1 m) near Eppenbrunn are

3975-458: The last few decades have caused further structural problems, especially affecting remote communities in sparsely populated areas through population decline, aging and migration. At the same time, the forested highlands has gained increasing importance in the second half of the twentieth century as a place for recreation and leisure activities of special ecological status . This is reflected in various touristic concepts and activities to offer

4050-451: The more habitable regions of what is now the Palatinate, taking place since the Neolithic period (5,500-4,500 BC), and especially in Celtic (800 to 10 BC) and Roman (10 BC to 450 AD) times, the mountains on the west bank of the Rhine were practically uninhabited and covered by dense, ancient forest until the end of the Migration Period (about 600 AD). After the Frankish conquests in the Early Middle Ages (7th to 10th century) took them to

4125-424: The mountains became rarer or were closed, as can be seen in the example of the footwear industry. Since its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, globalization has seen the relocation of shoe production abroad, resulting in the almost total collapse of the industry, reinforced especially in the 1980s and 1990s by increasing unemployment and induced migration trends. In addition, the far-reaching demographic changes of

4200-409: The mountains were rapidly exhausted and over-population and poverty, in particular in the 19th century, led to increased emigration to the New World . Apart from the modest level of iron extraction and processing, work in the forests and the operation of paper mills , the shoemaking industry in the region Pirmasens was the only real source of income. This meant that the railway in the second half of

4275-441: The names used by the handbook has prevailed. The most important subordinate landscapes are listed with the aid of a map; the map only showing the names of well-known landscapes and only the more significant landscape boundaries. The name Pfälzerwald was first used in 1843 – when the Palatinate was part of the Kingdom of Bavaria – by foresters in the centrally-located municipality of Johanniskreuz , who used it to refer to

4350-405: The narrow Zaberner Steige forms a border between the Palatinate Forest, which continues into France as the North Vosges ( Vosges du Nord or Nordvogesen ) and the "actual" Vosges . Geomorphologically and geologically, this dividing line is less pronounced than is the case on the right bank of the Rhine, where the Odenwald and Black Forest are clearly separated from each other by the lowland of

4425-454: The native population additional work and income opportunities and to assist in counteracting the structural changes described above. Whereas the Palatinate Forest was earlier seen mainly as a source of raw materials and energy supply, today, in addition to its recreation and leisure function, its ecological importance as a "special protected landscape" has come to the forefront. This change in attitude found visible expression, inter alia, through

4500-516: The nature park took over the Palatinate Forest Club (PWV). The 20 open shelters, built for walkers in log house style, were named "Fischer Huts" after the managing director of the Palatinate Forest Club, Ludwig Fischer. In the mid-1960s, the PWV came to the conclusion that the work required could not be done by volunteers and handed the management of the nature park to the Palatinate provincial government. By 1974, 3.7 million euros had been spent on improving recreational opportunities. Around 1975

4575-411: The newly-established German Empire . In 1871, the language border was used to determine the demarcation line between Alsace and Burgundy, and France was thereby able to retain Belfort. It had however become a border town again, and a series of fortifications was therefore thrown up to protect it from any future German attack. At the outbreak of the First World War , French troops invaded Germany through

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4650-498: The northern and central Palatinate Forest are prominent hill "blocks" ( Bergklötze ) and elongated trapezium-shaped ridges, frequently with rocky summit areas (e. g. the Kesselberg , 661.8 m) whilst, in the western part of the range, plateau-like hill formations with clearings predominate. In the southeastern Palatinate Forest, by contrast, the sediments of the Rotliegendes and Zechstein (erosion surfaces), and especially resistant Trifels and Rehberg beds (conical hills) influence

4725-408: The old protected area regulation for the Palatinate Forest Nature Park (1984) and therefore overlaps with the other three zones. Core, buffer and transition zones are representatively distributed over the area of the biosphere reserve. As part of this, some 16 core zones were defined, together covering about 2.3 percent of the area. The source region of the Wieslauter (2,296 ha) being the largest of

4800-452: The region during the era of the Salian (10th-12th centuries) and Hohenstaufen (12th and 13th century) emperors, with the construction of Trifels Castle and other castles in the surrounding area that, for a time, made it the centre of power of the empire. This development took place in the Late Middle Ages (13th to 15th centuries) and Early Modern Period (16th to 18th century), because disease (e.g. The Plague ) and famine led to

4875-403: The right into the Rodalb near the Riegelbrunnerhof, a hamlet belonging to Münchweiler . Its waters then flow down the Schwarzbach , Blies , Saar and Moselle before finally reaching the Rhine . The name "Merzalbe" means "stream of the Mericho" ( Bach des Mericho ) and goes back to a Frankish settler who must have made his residence here long before the first record in 1237 of the place of

4950-417: The same name by the stream. In this document Count Frederick III of Leiningen  [ de ; bg ] was given Castrum Grebinstein and granted the villages of Merichisalbin , Rothalbin and Eiswilre . In ignorance of this recorded origin of the name, a theory later arose that the name "Merzalb" meant "harmful / useless stream", because the first part of the name was thought to be related to

5025-513: The south. It marks the watershed between the drainage basins of the River Rhine to the east and the River Rhône to the west, part of the European Watershed between the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea . It is also the boundary between the historic regions of Burgundy to the west and Alsace to the east, and as such has marked the Franco-German border for long periods of its history. The Belfort Gap ( French : Trouée de Belfort ) or Burgundian Gate ( German : Burgunder Pforte )

5100-483: The southeast. The southern Palatinate sandstone formations of the Zechstein are divided into four strata having a total thickness of about 80 to 100 metres. The rock unit of bunter sandstone is divided into three strata: Weathering and erosion of the different rock strata of the Palatine Forest with their variable hardness have resulted in a low mountain landscape with a dense, deeply incised system of valleys and wide variety of hill shapes. The hard and resistant rocks of

5175-407: The territory on the German side was initially part of the stem duchy of Swabia , later the Alsatian Sundgau ("the southern Gau"). During the Late Middle Ages , in 1324 the Austrian House of Habsburg acquired first the Sundgau and in 1493 the County of Burgundy (more usually known in this period as the Franche-Comté ). Under the 1648 Peace of Westphalia , the Habsburgs were obliged to cede

5250-401: The use of the forest to obtain firewood and timber did not follow the principles of sustainability . On the one hand, the production of straw ( foliage as bedding for cattle) and wood pasture damaged the soils and forests; on the other hand the manufacture of iron , glass and potash , which needed a lot of wood, led for centuries to the overuse and destruction of the forest and thus to

5325-419: The valley floor is wide and they are therefore especially well suited for the construction of ponds, or woogs , reservoirs and small lakes (see below). Burgundian Gate The Belfort Gap ( French : Trouée de Belfort ) or Burgundian Gate ( German : Burgunder Pforte ) is the area of relatively flat terrain in Eastern France between the Vosges Mountains to the north and the Jura Mountains to

5400-603: The west and south is less sharp. To the north, the Palatinate Forest is adjoined by the North Palatine Uplands , including the Donnersberg ( 686.5 m ). This is where the bunter sandstone formations typical of the Palatinate Forest end, being replaced by other types of rock such as those of the Rotliegendes . This results in a clear geomorphological separation of the two landscape areas, which runs approximately along

5475-571: The woods of the bunter sandstone region of the Palatinate. Its use was extended when, in 1902, the Palatinate Forest Club ( Pfälzerwald-Verein or PWV) was founded, Fritz Claus, one of the pioneers of the PWV, in particular, strove to promote the name. A more precise, scientifically based definition of the Palatinate Forest as an independent natural region was introduced in 1911 by Daniel Häberle,

5550-466: The word ausmerzen ("eradicate") and thus to mean that either large amounts of water poured through the valley when the snow melted, causing damage, or that - more likely - the stream usually had too little water to be suitable for the operation of a mill. Gräfenstein Castle – the castle which measures 80 by 60 metres, above the Merzalb valley is one of the best preserved and most impressive castles built by

5625-441: Was founded as a support organization. The members of the association are those counties and independent towns whose territories are covered by the nature park as well as the Palatinate regional association, various rambling and sports clubs and environmental organizations. Many social organisations are involved in the work of the nature park, ensuring the independence of academic and regional individual interests. The association's goal

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