“Forest wave follows forest wave until one is the last and cuts the sky.” Adalbert Stifter’s words praise the wonders of the great, wooded mountain range known as the Bohemian Forest. The name “Bavarian Forest,” describing the part on this side of the border shared with the Czech Republic and Austria, only became established in the 20th century.
Stifter’s “forest waves,” the gentle wooded hills, give little hint that there was once a rugged, high mountain range here. The diagram at the top right of the info panel illustrates the presumed situation. 300 million years ago, today’s landscape was 10 to 15 kilometers beneath the Earth’s surface.
The granite was still very young: a slowly cooling fusion of rock, deep inside the Earth’s turbulent crust.
Today, we can see the weathered and eroded remains of what were once high mountains. A landscape rich in rocks, which is covered in large parts by forest and meadows.
To illustrate the development of the Bavarian Forest, we’ll show you a geological play in six scenes. Pay attention to the screen: it’s a piece of granite that was formed under the Earth’s surface millions of years ago.
Enjoy the show. We’ll meet again around the corner here at the desk with the three screens.
