CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
324 km from Schwarzenberg to Schwarzenberg, about 5 h 56 of riding. The stops in between: Mědník Hill Mining Landscape, Marienberg Mining Town, Freiberg Mining Landscape and Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape. It crosses from Germany into Czechia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Schwarzenberg, in the western Erzgebirge, is a town of steep streets, slate roofs and a castle and church perched on a rock above the Schwarzwasser river, and the hills around it are riddled with old mine workings. The Rother Berg, the red mountain, takes its name from the iron ore that colours its soil, and it is one of the components of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, the cross-border UNESCO site listed in 2019. For eight centuries, miners in these mountains dug for silver, tin, iron, cobalt and later uranium, and their work shaped not only the landscape but the culture of the whole region.
Read the complete Rother Berg Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rother Berg Mining Landscape is where the day begins. Next is Mědník Hill Mining Landscape.
Mědník is a small, steep hill on the Czech side of the Ore Mountains, or Krušné hory, the range that forms the border between Bohemia and Saxony. It rises above the village of Měděnec, whose name, like the hill's, comes from the Czech word for copper. For centuries, miners tunnelled into the hill for copper and iron ore, and the hill is now part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, inscribed by UNESCO in 2019 as a cross-border site.
Read the complete Mědník Hill Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mědník Hill Mining Landscape comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Marienberg Mining Town.
In 1521 Duke Heinrich of Saxony founded a new town in the Ore Mountains to house miners drawn by recent silver strikes, and he had it laid out on a regular grid around a huge square market place, following Renaissance ideas of the ideal city. Marienberg is the result, and its plan is still clearly visible, with straight streets, the town church, the Zschopau gate and a stretch of town wall. The town is part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, the cross-border World Heritage Site inscribed in 2019, which recognises eight hundred years of mining in these mountains.
Read the complete Marienberg Mining Town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Marienberg Mining Town. Next is Freiberg Mining Landscape.
Silver was found near Freiberg in 1168, and within a few decades the town had become one of the richest in Saxony. For eight centuries, miners dug ever deeper into the hills, and the wealth they brought up paid for churches, palaces and the splendours of Dresden. Freiberg's Bergakademie, founded in 1765, is the oldest mining university in the world still operating, and its mineral collection is one of the finest anywhere. The town and its mining landscape are part of the Erzgebirge mining region listed by UNESCO, shared between Germany and the Czech Republic.
Read the complete Freiberg Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Freiberg Mining Landscape, about halfway. Next is Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape.
Altenberg lives with a hole in the ground, and is proud of it. The Pinge, a huge funnel of collapsed workings beside the town, opened up in 1620 when old tin mine tunnels caved in, and later collapses widened it into the crater you can look into today. Tin was the reason for everything here: the town grew around the mines in the fifteenth century, and the Zinnwald workings a few kilometres up the ridge, right on the Czech border, kept digging into modern times. The whole district is part of the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, a UNESCO listing shared between Saxony and Bohemia.
Read the complete Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape sits at 159 km, about halfway. Next is back through Freiberg Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Freiberg Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Freiberg Mining Landscape comes up about 207 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Marienberg Mining Town.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Marienberg Mining Town write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 246 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Marienberg Mining Town. Next is back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mědník Hill Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape, late in the day. Next is Rother Berg Mining Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rother Berg Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 324 km.
Rother Berg Mining Landscape → Mědník Hill Mining Landscape is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mědník Hill Mining Landscape → Marienberg Mining Town is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Marienberg Mining Town → Freiberg Mining Landscape is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Freiberg Mining Landscape → Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Altenberg-Zinnwald Mining Landscape → back through Freiberg Mining Landscape is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Freiberg Mining Landscape → back through Marienberg Mining Town is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Marienberg Mining Town → back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mědník Hill Mining Landscape → Rother Berg Mining Landscape is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.