Top 12 Caves 베라-마이스너-크라이스

Not much to see, but you can hear the rushing water...

The legend of the helpful, friendly, and sometimes cheeky little gnomes is widespread throughout Hesse. They are little men with triangular hats who live in the forest and caves and sometimes help us or play pranks. 😀 Here near Abterode, you can find the Wichtellöcher (Wichtel holes), where some of the gnomes once lived (or perhaps still do?!)

The slag heap originally consisted of three houses: the still-existing, vacant "Haus Halde" from 1755 (base renewed in 1905, timber framing renewed in 1978, roof insulated in 2012), a second house that was demolished in the 1960s, and a horse stable, of which relatively little is known. The foremen lived in these houses, who oversaw mining in the Schwalbenthaler Erbstollen and the Carlsstollen and accounted for the extracted coal. The foundations of the wooden log cabin of the Eschwege Scouts (Silver Foxes) and the horse stable are still in place; the tunnels were secured in 2002. Source: https://wiki.genealogy.net/Hoher_Mei%C3%9Fner

The so-called Halde, a depression, lies 1,000 meters from the Schwalbenthal valley. The house is still preserved here. The entrance to the New Erbstollen (New Heritage Tunnel) is also located there. This drainage tunnel was excavated in 1628.

On the eastern slope of the Hohen Meißner, above the Halde house and the New Erbstollen, lies the mouth of the Carlsstollen, which was opened in 1630. A channel was used to drain the mine water, which led from the mouth of the tunnel to a cascade-shaped structure, the former "Schwalbenthal waterfall". Lignite was mined in both tunnels until 1888.

The portal of the brown coal tunnel in Bransrode was uncovered and restored in 2008. Coal was mined here until 1929. In 1923, around 200 miners were employed, producing a maximum annual output of around 95,000 tons of brown coal. https://wiki.genealogy.net/Bransrode

In 1622, the first mining in the Bransroder area took place with the excavation of the "Alte Häuser Stollen", which was in operation until 1700. As a replacement for this, the excavation of the "Bransroder Stollen" began in 1696, but was finally stopped in 1929. The tunnel portal, which had been buried in the meantime, was uncovered, secured and restored in 2008. The building is now a listed building and is home to bats in winter.

According to legend, Mother Holle imprisoned young girls here and turned them into kittens.