Harz Mountains - Braunschweiger Land - Ostfalen UNESCO Geopark
Cotton grass sways softly over the peat bog, rugged cliffs rise heavenwards, and rivers flow through enchanted valleys.
The Harz Mountains National Park protects the precious natural heritage of Germany’s northernmost mountain range around the Brocken. The mountains and foothills of the Harz Mountains / Braunschweiger Land / Ostfalen UNESCO Geopark testify to 450 million years of the Earth’s history.
Harz Mountains National Park
Spruce trees? They’re almost all gone now. What was once a dreary monoculture is turning into the primeval forest of tomorrow. Robust mixed forests of beech and sycamore are already growing in the Harz Mountains National Park. Among them, as if thrown in as a giant’s afterthought, are big boulders and bizarre cliffs. No wonder there are so many myths about the Harz Mountains – especially the ones about witches. There are wild animals too: lynx and wildcats are starting to feel at home again in the Harz Mountains, and the roaring of red stag can be heard from afar in the autumn.
Adventures for nature lovers
Have you ever seen a lynx up close? A few of the shy cats live in Luchsgehege an den Rabenklippen on the Burgberg near Bad Harzburg. A scenic walk leads upwards – and the BaumSchwebeBahn glides gently back down in relaxed curves, weaving through the treetops to the treetop trail below. Or maybe you’d prefer to head out on foot with a national park ranger into the peat bog, the mountain meadows or the new forest? Information about the legendary mountain wilderness is available from official sources like the national park’s TorfHaus Visitor Centre, which is also the starting point for the WaldWandelWeg, one of the national park’s theme trails.
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History you can touch
The Upper Harz is exciting, but so are its foothills. Prehistoric graves, geological adventure trails, dark show mines and boulder gardens await discovery in the Harz Mountains / Braunschweiger Land / Ostfalen UNESCO Geopark. At the Schöningen Research Museum, you can travel back in time to the Paleolithic, when our antecedents fashioned the wooden spears on display in the museum (they were found down a mine there). The Schöningen spears are the oldest human hunting implements ever found!
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