Salzgitter Bad (Salder Castle)

The Geo Trail leads 6.5 km through the ridge from the Bismarck Tower. From the upper platform of the tower, which was erected in 1900 in honour of former Chancellor Prince Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), there is a magnificent panoramic view of the Harz foothills, extending to the Harz Mountains and the Brocken. 

Following the geo-path signs through the woodruff and orchid beech forest, characteristic of limestone soils, you traverse a period of more than 150 million years of Earth's history. Starting from the limestones of the Lower Triassic Muschelkalk period on the summit of the 272-metre-high Hamberg, the path leads to the outer flank of the Salzgitter ridge. The geo-path continues to the former Finkenkuhle open-cast mine. After mining operations ceased in 1958, this intensely worked iron ore mine, with its shaft site, has become an idyllic lake and an ideal habitat for amphibians and insects. A total of 7.73 million tonnes of Lower Cretaceous ore were extracted through open-cast and underground mining.

Approximately 200 metres from the former open-cast mine, one encounters the Albrecht spring, the water of which, on the one hand, supplied the former Albrecht brickworks, which processed the underlying dark Lower Jurassic (Lias) clays, and on the other hand, was sold as medicinal water up until the 1930s. The medicinal and mineral springs from Salzgitter-Bad, like the water from the Irene spring and the Plünnecken spring, which was sold in the 19th century as Imperial Harzer Sauerbrunnen, were known throughout Germany.

Directions: From Braunschweig, head south on the A 36 to the Flöthe exit. Turn right onto the L 512 towards Salzgitter Bad (B 248, Braunschweiger Str.). In Salzgitter Bad, follow the signs for “Bismarckturm”.