Thanks to the reorganizing of a few towns and villages in January 2010 there’s now a newly formed town, Südharz, which I had to check out for myself.
Interesting how Südharz’s least populated village has only 106 residents, and its most populated at 2,244 in Roßla. And Schwenda, with less than 600 inhabitants, is the oldest of them all, established in 532 A.D.
No matter how you slice it all up — this place is most definitely not crowded. ;-)
Südharz isn’t known for its population explosion, it’s known for its Heimkehle Cave. It’s the largest gypsum cave of its kind, with ceiling reaching 20 feet high. Today the caves holds a laser show, and has a Mining Museum — but back during WWII the cave acted as a weapons factory.
To go back to mining for a minute, let me tell you about Südharz’s Bauerngraben. It’s like a combination of creek and trench, that fills with water (sometimes 15 meters deep) and empties totally dry — thanks to the mining pits.
It’s not about mining when you’re off to see the castle of Südharz. There’s a wide gap of differences between Burg Stolberg and Schloss Roßla, just so you know.
Burg Stolberg is one of those medieval castles, whose original can be dated to the 10th century.
Schloss Roßla, on the other hand, is light & airy — a Classicist design from the 19th century. The castle might be a Community Center with a 6-acre park, but I was more impressed with how the castle had a library with over 30,000 volumes.
What a nice way of saying it had tens of thousands of books. Don’t you just wish you had another whole lifetime to do that kind of reading?
I’m not sure if the observation deck of the Josephkreuz in Stolberg would be the ideal place for reading a book. No, I’m pretty much sure it’s no place to read. Now, take your eyeballs off the page, and go scope out the scenery.
Then go see the St. Martini Church in Stolberg where Martin Luther himself preached. You’d think that be it on church visiting, but the half-timbered/stone church in Kleinlein is a striking medieval structure; and the Sts. Cyriak & Nicholas Church is a fascinating Baroque design from 1736.
The fact that Südharz isn’t crowded with people, but books on the other hand, is a different story. ;-)
