The best running trails around Sehmatal

a very nice corner

The Cranzahl Dam was built between 1949 and 1952 near Sehmatal-Cranzahl and Bärenstein in the Ore Mountains to supply drinking water to Annaberg-Buchholz and the surrounding area. It was later expanded and renovated. Along with the Sosa Dam, it was one of the two major dam construction projects of the young GDR. Reflecting the spirit of the times, it was named the "Dam of Friendship" as a central youth project of the Free German Youth (FDJ). A memorial stone commemorates this. Many hiking trails lead through this area up to the Bärenstein, offering fantastic views of the Ore Mountains.

The Fichtelberg is the second-highest peak in the Ore Mountains, after Klínovec (Keilberg, 1244 meters), just four kilometers away. At 1215 meters, it is the highest mountain in Saxony and was also the highest mountain in the GDR. A new summit cross has stood on the summit plateau since May 29, 2024. Erik Schulze, the deputy mayor of Oberwiesenthal, had promised to find a replacement for the old, already rather dilapidated cross that was swept away by hurricane "Fred" on November 5, 2023, with a gust of 106.6 kilometers per hour. He made the new summit cross himself from spruce wood. The crossbeam bears the words "1215 m" and "FICHTELBERG." The inscription on the old cross read "1215 ü M Fichtelberg" on the horizontal bar, and "Glück Auf Sachsen" on the vertical bar.

The Traktor Oberwiesenthal sports club's luge track has been out of use for 35 years. Founded in 1955, the club was dissolved in 1990, and its successor, the Oberwiesenthaler SV 1990, saw itself as its successor. The naturally iced luge track, constructed from concrete elements and opened in the winter of 1969/1970 for the GDR luge training center, has been deteriorating since 1990 and is overgrown with vegetation. However, you can still walk the entire 1,100-meter-long track with its 18 curves and admire the buildings that enrich this lost place, such as the scoring booths and observation bridge. At the first Olympic luge competitions in Innsbruck in 1964, SC Traktor athletes dominated the field. Ortrun Enderlein and Ilse Geisler won gold and silver medals in the women's race, and Thomas Köhler and Klaus-Michael Bonsack won silver in the men's race.

The large peace bell on the Fichtelberg had to remain silent for six months in 2024. Stone throwing in May 2022 had so badly damaged the bell that its sound suffered. It was decided to stop ringing it and replace it with a new one. The old bell rang for the last time on Easter Monday 2024. Just in time for the mountain service on German Unity Day on October 3, the new bell was officially rung for the first time in the fall of 2024. The idea of using a peace bell to commemorate the peaceful revolution of 1989 in the GDR and German reunification in 1990 came from watchman Gerd Schlesinger and night watchman Jörg Eller from the Ore Mountains town of Schwarzenberg. The bell was also intended to be heard in neighboring Czechia and thus ring for a united Europe. The cast steel bell, already ninety years old at the time, was rung for the first time in 2010. The new bell was cast in Innsbruck by the Grassmayr company. At 2,700 kilograms, it is about 1,100 kilograms heavier than the old bell.

The first weather observer on this summit was the innkeeper of the Fichtelberghaus. He recorded his weather observations from 1890 onwards, but from 1898 onwards only intermittently, and from 1910 onwards not at all. The head of the Royal Saxon State Meteorological Observatory, Paul Schreiber, suggested the construction of a permanent weather observatory. Temperature, wind speed, and precipitation amounts have been continuously recorded here since January 1, 1916. The strongest storm recorded here was on January 3, 1976, with a peak gust speed of 216 kilometers per hour. The coldest day on the summit was February 9, 1956, with minus 30.4 degrees Celsius; the warmest was July 27, 1983, with plus 30.8 degrees Celsius. The highest snow cover was measured in March 1944: 3.35 meters. The year 1951 was bad for Fichtelberg tourists: it held the record for foggy days with 315.

The Fichtelberg is at an altitude of 1215m. The summit cross was renewed a few years ago and now has a new spot a few meters next to it.

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