We look forward to hearing from you! GeoRoute 7, the Friedrichroda Mining Trail Contact: takes you to the landmark mountain of Friedrichroda: GeoPark-Office: the 572 m high “Gottlob“. From here and the Klinken- Kur- und Tourismusamt Friedrichroda stein, the walker will enjoy beautiful views of the town 99894 Friedrichroda, Hauptstr. 55 and the western Thuringian Forest. GeoRoute 7 Telephone: +49(0)3623-33200 Friedrichroda follows the Dodels- and Kaempfspromenade and Email: [email protected] continues into the Schilfwasser Valley. All along the 2 www.thueringer-geopark.de trail you will pass springs and curative mineral water Dipl.-Geol. Stephan Brauner Mining Trail operations for extracting iron and later manganese wells. Telephone: +49(0)3623-332014 ore, rhyolite crushed rock, platy sandstones and gypsum. Guide for GeoRoute 7 Imprint: Today, the former gypsum mine in Abtsberg is Stadt Friedrichroda famous all over Germany for its wonderful crystal Gartenstr. 9, 99894 Friedrichroda grotto. The visitors mine Marienglashöhle Friedrich- roda is open to visitors every day: Legend Geopark-Management: e.t.a. Sachverständigenbüro Reyer All symbols along the GeoRoute are Marienglashöhle explained in the following column. Haarbergstr. 37, 99097 Erfurt An der B88, 99894 Friedrichroda Telephone: +49(0)361-4229000, Email: [email protected] Restaurant Telephone: +49(0)3623-311667 Geological Sites www.marienglashoehle.de Author: 1 Mining Email: [email protected] Dipl.-Geol. Stephan Brauner Rocks All information is liable to printing errors. Cave The theme of this GeoRoute focuses on the highly 1. Edition, August 2017 Drinking pavillion visible remains of the more than 500-year old mining Spring history of the hill town Friedrichroda. Nearly every Waterfall step will take you to old adit entrances, abandoned Das Faltblatt ist auch in Deutsch erhältlich. Quarry quarries or sink-holes, the remains of historic mining Wall built of local rocks Points of interest Rocks Friedrichroda Mining Trail Museum View GeoPark Info column 9 Information panel Castle Overview panel Listening station Ground monument GeoRoute 7: length approx. 7 km, duration: approx. Mountain theatre 3-4 hours, diculty level: medium Spa garden tributary to hotels & to Marienglashöhle visitor mine Transport GeoRoute 11: Information: Bus stop 11 Information panel with Geo Info centre Thüringer Waldbahn (tram line) number Tourist information 4 Railway station GeoRoute 11: natural centre Parking lot resources at Thüringenweg trail 3 National GeoPark Thüringen Inselsberg - Drei Gleichen National GeoPark Schorn hill. Silver was never found, but the search Geological timetable for the Geopark The . Gottlob (572m) is a small but very interesting Deep in the hills of discovered the typical Friedrichroda iron ore veins. mining district. Five new minerals were discovered Audio Guide along the Youngest solid rock and first described here. One of these is the micro- The travertine (freshwater lime- stone) of Mühlberg (GeoRoutes Age scopic, orange-brown copper-magnesium-vanadate 2+3) is just 7000-5000 years old. Mining Trail Friedrichroda 1 Gottlobite. This mineral was first described as recently 2 Friedrichroda looks back on a long and interesting Quaternary Uplifting of the Thuringian Forest as 2001 and has never been found anywhere else. history of mining. For at least 400 years the local Alpine Orogeny The formation of the Alps caused The Friedrichroda Mining Trail is a restriction of the pre-alpine in mio. equipped with an audio guide in mines produced iron, manganese, cobalt and even years foreland creating extensive fault blocks in the region. As the german. Observe the QR-codes gypsum. Discover the traces of the historic mining 190 blocks were lifted by more than Lias on the information panels and feel activities all along the Mining Trail. 2000 m the Triassic and Jurassic layers were removed, exposing Jurassic free to test the QR-code for 200 the underlying older rocks. Listening station 1 here: These faults are an essential 12 The oldest official document related to mining in requirement for the formation of the ore veins along northern Friedrichroda is a prospecting permit dated June 16, 210 margin of the Thuringian Forest. • Listening station 1 Introduction 1477, signed by the Landlord of Weimar Count One of the most famous mines, the Marienglashöhle Oldest dinosaurs in Thuringia • Listening station 2 Economy and Inventive Genius Wilhelm III of Saxony. The permit authorizes the 7 220 was opened during his time. However, it was only by Keuper (GeoRoutes 3 + 6) Abbey of Reinhardsbrunn to look for silver on the chance that this mine was developed. It is very • Listening station 3 The Glückstern Mine Ceratites and marine For several centuries, all mining activities focussed 230 unusual to extract gypsum in underground mines and • Listening station 4 What were the Venetians Triassic reptiles of the doing in Thuringia? on extracting these iron ore deposits. The middle of Oberer Muschelkalk Sea was never planned that way. Initially, in 1775, the Mittlerer 10 11 schel- kalk the 16th century saw one of the high points of mining, 240 Unterer Herzog-Ernst adit was driven into the hill for draining • Listening station 5 Luther Beech and Luther Well Mu Oberer Archosaurs when an exceptionally large number of mines were H. (dinosaur ancestors) the quarry above. Then, in 1778 the adit was ex- • Listening station 6 Goethe in Friedrichroda Mittlerer V. Bunt- left their tracks in Thuringia However, the Gottlob produced more than iron ore. A developed: the Wolfstieg Vein in 1539, on the Gottlob 250 Unterer tended in an attempt to reach the copper shale. The sandstein The Ludowingers platy red sandstone known as “Flurplatten“ was • Listening station 7 in 1550 and shortly afterwards the Sperrweg Vein. The Zechstein Sea gypsum deposit was discovered during this operation stein Zech- Kupferschiefer extracted from the quarry Plattenbruch am Gottlob. • Listening station 8 From Abbey to Castle Nearly 500 years later it is still possible to recognize 260 Neuenhof-Fm. (Grenzkonglomerat) Copper shale and gypsum and offered the unexpected opportunity for under- deposits. The era of Ruhla This exposure has been protected as a natural monu- Reinhardsbrunn many of the remains of these mines. Island. The first fossil reptile ground extraction. ever to be described was found ment since 1968. In the world of science the illustrious • Listening station 9 The first visitor of the health 270 Eisenach-Formation Permian 1706 in the Thuringian Copper name Gottlob is well-known as a historic fossil site, The Zechstein deposits along the margin of the spa Friedrichroda Shale. It was later named Tambach-Formation Protorosaurus (“first lizard”) having played an important role in the research of the Thuringian Forest are responsible for another special • Listening station 10 Geotope “Old Quarry in the 280 Rotterode-Formation (GeoRoute 9) Rotliegend flora and fauna of the Rotliegend Age. In 1847, feature of Friedrichroda. They are the source of the Regenberg Porphyry“ Oberhof-Formation Early saurians from the famous minerals dissolved in the curative water of the Goldlauter-Formation Bernhard VON COTTA, a professor of geology at the • Listening station 11 Mining History of the Gottlob 290 Bromacker locality Manebach-Formation University of Freiberg, discovered the first early Ludowinger Spring Friedrichroda. The water is • Listening station 12 Miner’s Song 5 Ilmenau-Formation ? extracted by means of a 58 m deep shaft, drilled in Georgenthal- u. Möhrenbach-Fm. saurian tracks. The palaeontologist Hans POHLIG from 300 (GeoRoute 6) • Listening station 13 Marienglashöhle ferous Carboni- G Bonn named this type of track Ichniotherium cottae. 1995 and is transferred via a high cistern to the drinking Illustrations Variscan Orogeny Natural Monument • Listening station 14 Beneath our feet – Marienglas THG Plattenbruch am Gottlob wells in the Kurpark, Friedenspark and Kirchplatz. formation of Pangaea supercontinent disintegration supercontinent Pangaea of formation Title: Plan of the Wolfsstieg Mine from 1757, ±1000 m Today we know who left these tracks. It was the Lake deposits with small amphi- Extract from Thüringer Staatsarchiv Gotha Nr. 557a Bl. 30 400 bians (”branchiosaurs”) and nu- Diadectids, which grew to about 1.5 m. These were Illustrations Devonian merous plant fossils. (GeoRoute 7) 1 The Gottlob, landmark hill of Friedrichroda, 420 ancient tetrapods, neither real reptiles nor amphib- setting for ancient legends and mining 7 Mineral Goethite from Gottlob hill (Foto Spelda, Bad Tabarz) 440 ±2000 m Forest bogs of the Manebach- Liebenstein-Group Silurian >3000 m? ians. The Gottlob site is also famous for its plant area between 1550 and 1924. Formation (GeoRoutes 8+9) 8 Natural Monument Plattenbruch am Gottlob 8 9 460 2 View of the Marienglashöhle GeoInfoCentre Volcanoes of the Early fossils. For example, the oldest ginkgo remains in the 9 Ganoid fish and coprolite in common red preservation from 480 3 In the crystal grotto of the Marienglashöhle Ordovician Permian Rotliegend Era world were found here. Natural Monument Plattenbruch quarry at Gottlob hill ±1000 m 500 4 Gottlobite, a new mineral discovered in Ruhla-Group (GeoRoutes 1 and 8) 10 Old dry stone wall made of red sandstone from the Plattenbruch Some of the ores discovered in the 16th century were One of the most famous people in the mining history quarry at Gottlob hill. Those platy sandstones known as “Flur- 1997. The width of the picture represents