Morassina is an inactive mine in Schmiedefeld (Lichtetal), Thuringia, Germany. Today it is a tourist attraction known for its stalactites.
Morassina is an inactive mine in Schmiedefeld (Lichtetal), Thuringia, Germany. Today it is a tourist attraction known for its stalactites.
The first recorded mention of the mine dates to 1683, as a source of alum, iron and copper vitriols (sulfates), [1] sulfur, and colored clay. The colours of the stalactites are produced by the minerals in the mine. [2] In 1717 the merchant Johann Leonard Morassi bought the mine and named it Morassina. In 1750 the Leipzig trading firm of Frege bought it and became extremely wealthy from it; in 1816 they were able to buy back the Crown Jewels of Saxony, carried off by Napoleon, from Amsterdam. However, the bottom fell out of the market after chemical methods of synthesizing alum and sulfuric acid were introduced around 1850. The mine was not worked after 1860, [1] [3] and was closed up and forgotten. In 1851, miners seeking uranium discovered it and the stalactite formations, [3] but because of its location near the Inner German Border, the East German authorities refused until 1998 to allow it to be opened to visitors. It was finally opened in 1993. [1] There is a mining museum (opened in 1995) and the St. Barbara licensed spa (opened in 1997); radium cures are offered. [4]
Sonneberg is a Kreis (district) in the south of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are the districts Hildburghausen, Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, and the Bavarian districts Kronach and Coburg.
Saalfeld is a town in Germany, capital of the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district of Thuringia. It is best known internationally as the ancestral seat of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha branch of the Saxon House of Wettin.
Blankenhain is a town in the Weimarer Land district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is 14 km south of Weimar.
Gräfenthal is a town in the district of Saalfeld-Rudolstadt in Thuringia, Germany.
The Saalfeld Fairy Grottoes are caverns or grottoes of a former mine near Saalfeld, in the German state of Thuringia.
The Schwarza is a left tributary of the Saale in Thuringia, Germany.
Lichte is a village and a former municipality in the district of Sonneberg in Thuringia, Germany, close to the Thuringian Rennsteig. Formerly in the district Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, it is part of the town Neuhaus am Rennweg since January 2019.
The Thuringian Highland, Thuringian Highlands or Thuringian-Vogtlandian Slate Mountains is a low range of mountains in the German state of Thuringia.
The Rennsteig is a ridge walk as well as an historical boundary path in the Thuringian Forest, Thuringian Highland and Franconian Forest in Central Germany. The long-distance trail runs for about 170 km from Eisenach and the Werra valley in the northwest to Blankenstein and the Selbitz river in the southeast.
The Lichte (Thuringia) east station was a Deutsche Reichsbahn station of the Thuringian municipality of Lichte (Wallendorf) in the district of Saalfeld-Rudolstadt.
Friedensburg Castle is an early 16th-century castle overlooking the valley of the Sormitz at Leutenberg in southeast Thuringia, Germany. It was formerly the residence of the Counts of Schwarzburg-Leutenberg and today is a dermatological medical facility.
Louis III, nicknamed Louis the Pious or Louis the Mild was a member of the Ludowingians dynasty who ruled as Landgrave of Thuringia from 1172 until his death.
Itzgründisch is an East Franconian dialect, which is spoken in the eponymous Itz Valley and its tributaries of Grümpen, Effelder, Röthen/Röden, Lauter, Füllbach and Rodach, the valleys of the Neubrunn, Biber and the upper Werra and in the valley of Steinach. In the small language area, which extends from the Itzgrund in Upper Franconia to the southern side of the Thuringian Highlands, East Franconian still exists in the original form. Because of the remoteness of the area, this isolated by the end of the 19th century and later during the division of Germany, this language has kept many linguistic features to this day. Scientific study of the Itzgründisch dialect was made for the first time, in the middle of the 19th century, by the linguist August Schleicher.
The Free State of Coburg emerged from the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha at the end of the First World War. It existed from November 1918 until its union with the Free State of Bavaria on 1 July 1920.
Carl Adolf Riebeck, originally Carl Adolph Riebeck was an industrialist and mining entrepreneur. The controversy around his sole possession after his death led to the establishment of A. Riebeck’sche Montanwerke by his heirs.
The Imperial Castle of Kyffhausen is a medieval castle ruin, situated in the Kyffhäuser hills in the German state of Thuringia, close to its border with Saxony-Anhalt. Probably founded about 1000, it superseded the nearby imperial palace (Kaiserpfalz) of Tilleda under the rule of the Hohenstaufen emperors during the 12th and 13th centuries. Together with the Kyffhäuser Monument, erected on the castle grounds between 1890 and 1896, it is today a popular tourist destination. The castle is variously known in English as Kyffhausen Castle, Kyffhauser Castle, Kyffhäuser Castle, and Kyffhaueser Castle.
Ursula Fischer is a German former national politician (PDS).
The Taunus Nature Park is a nature park in Central Germany with an area of 134,775 hectares (1347.75 km2) in the Central Upland range of the Taunus. It is one of two Hessian nature parks in the Taunus and the second largest nature park in Hesse.
Frieder Lippmann is a German politician (SPD). He is a former member of the East German national parliament (Volkstag) and of the regional parliament (Landtag) of Thuringia.
Süd-Thüringen-Bahn GmbH (STB) is a public, non-state-owned railway company founded on 10 December 1999. The shareholders are Erfurter Bahn GmbH (EB) and Hessische Landesbahn GmbH (HLB), each with a 50 percent stake. The company is based at Erfurter Bahn in Erfurt, Thuringia. The operating location and operational management are located in Meiningen, Thuringia.
Coordinates: 50°32′06″N11°13′00″E / 50.53500°N 11.21667°E
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