Jizera Mountains
Encyclopedia
Jizera Mountains or Izera Mountains, are part of the Western Sudetes
on the border between the Czech Republic
and Poland
. The major part is formed from granite
, with some areas formed from basalt
. The mountain
s got their name from the Jizera River
, which rises at the southern base of Smrk Mountain
.
The weather conditions are characterized by above-average annual precipitation
. On 30 July 1897, the measuring station at Nová Louka
recorded a daily precipitation amounting to 345.1 mm (13.6 inches), still an unbroken European record. The Jizera Mountains comprise the sources of the Jizera river, the Kwisa
and the Lusatian Neisse
.
in Poland. Other mountains include Smrk (1124 m, 3,688 feet), with a recently rebuilt look-out tower, Jizera (1,122 m, 3,681 feet) and Stóg Izerski (Heufuder, 1,107 m, 3,632). The peaks in order of elevation:
. Later on, Celt
s, German
tribes resides in the valleys until they left in 5th century. Later came Lusatian Sorbs. In the 14th century, German-speaking colonists came and started clearing of the dense primeval forests. Permanent settlements were established. In the 16th century, several glass
works were founded. Glassmaking had a profound effect on the ecosystem
. The primeval forest was gradually replaced by fast-growing spruce
monoculture. Other important industries included tin-mining, metallurgy and textile.
The Tabulový kámen , 1072 m) on the northern edge of the Smrk Mountain marked the border between the properties of the Counts of Gallas
in Friedland
, Bohemia
, the von Gersdorff family from Meffersdorf, Upper Lusatia
, and the Counts of Schaffgotsch from Schreiberhau
, Silesia
.
In the second half of the 20 century the character of the Jizera Mountains changed completely. The German population of the area was expelled
in 1945 and replaced by Poles on the now Polish and Czechs on the Czechoslovakia
n side of the mountains. The ecosystem was badly hit by emissions, produced by lignite
fired power station
s located in the Zittau
basin. Weakened spruce forest, less resistant against various types of parasites
, were on the verge of extinction. The higher parts of the mountains, once densely wooded, became largely treeless, in part also because of excessive deforestation. New roads cut through the once secluded landscape. The situation improved only after the fall of communism
in 1989. Open-pit
coal mines in the former East Germany were closed, as well as several major power plants. Emission filters were installed at the immense Turów power station
in Bogatynia
on the Polish side of Lusatian Neisse
. At the same time large-scale reforestation projects were started.
Rozdroże pod Cichą Równią - Jizera Mountains
The Jizera Mountains are an attractive location for winter sports, cycling and hiking. The centre for both downhill skiing and ski run is Bedřichov. The international cross-country races Jizerská 50 and Bieg Piastów (in Polana Jakuszycka) take place there. Its summer MTB counterpart is also gaining popularity.
The towns surrounding the mountains include Liberec
, Frýdlant v Čechách
, Nové Město pod Smrkem
, Świeradów Zdrój, Szklarska Poręba
, Desná, Tanvald
and Jablonec nad Nisou
.
Western Sudetes
Western Sudetes are the Western part of Sudetes range system on the border of the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany. They stretch from the Bóbr river in the east to the Elbe and the Elbe Sandstone Mountains in the west....
on the border between the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. The major part is formed from granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
, with some areas formed from basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
. The mountain
Mountain
Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...
s got their name from the Jizera River
Jizera River
The Jizera is a river that begins on the border between Poland and the Czech Republic and ends in Central Bohemia. Like some other names in Bohemia, the name Jizera is of Celtic origin, as the Celts lived in the area during Roman times .-Geography:It develops from the confluence of the Great Jizera...
, which rises at the southern base of Smrk Mountain
Smrk (Jizera)
Smrk is the highest mountain in the Jizera Mountains of the Czech Republic at . "The King of the Jizera mountains" lies south of Nové Město pod Smrkem...
.
The weather conditions are characterized by above-average annual precipitation
Precipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...
. On 30 July 1897, the measuring station at Nová Louka
Nová Louka
Nová Louka is a mountain meadow in Jizera Mountains near the city of Bedřichov, district of Jablonec nad Nisou. It is situated in the north of the Czech Republic, approximately 130 km from Prague. There is Blatny brook flowing through the meadow. Nová Louka is an important cross-road of...
recorded a daily precipitation amounting to 345.1 mm (13.6 inches), still an unbroken European record. The Jizera Mountains comprise the sources of the Jizera river, the Kwisa
Kwisa
The Kwisa is a river in south-western Poland, a left tributary of the Bóbr, which itself is a left tributary of the Oder river.It rises in the Izera Mountains, part of the Western Sudetes range, where it runs along the border with the Czech Republic...
and the Lusatian Neisse
Lusatian Neisse
The Lusatian Neisse is a long river in Central Europe. The river has its source in the Jizera Mountains near Nová Ves nad Nisou, Czech Republic, reaching the tripoint with Poland and Germany at Zittau after , and later forms the Polish-German border on a length of...
.
Peaks
The highest peak is Wysoka Kopa (Hinterberg, 1,127 m, 3,698 feet) near the town of Szklarska PorębaSzklarska Poreba
Szklarska Poręba is a town in Jelenia Góra County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. The town has a population of around 7,000...
in Poland. Other mountains include Smrk (1124 m, 3,688 feet), with a recently rebuilt look-out tower, Jizera (1,122 m, 3,681 feet) and Stóg Izerski (Heufuder, 1,107 m, 3,632). The peaks in order of elevation:
- Wysoka Kopa (Hinterberg), 1,127 m; highest peak of the Jizera Mountains
- SmrkSmrk (Jizera)Smrk is the highest mountain in the Jizera Mountains of the Czech Republic at . "The King of the Jizera mountains" lies south of Nové Město pod Smrkem...
(Tafelfichte), 1,124 m; highest peak of the Bohemian Jizera Mountains - Jizera (Siechhübel), 1,122 m
- Stóg Izerski (Heufuder), 1,107 m
- Smědavská hora (Wittigberg), 1,084 m
- Bukovec (Buchberg), 1,005 m; one of the highest basalt peaks in Europe
- Hvězda (Stefanshöhe), 959 m
- Černá Studnice (Schwarzbrunnberg), 869 m
- Tanvaldský Špičák (Tannwalder Spitzberg), 831 m; skiing region near TanvaldTanvaldTanvald is a town in the northern Czech Republic. Its population was 6,836 as of August 28, 2006.The town has direct rail connection with Prague and Dresden. Traffic on the railway line to Jelenia Góra in Poland was restricted in 1945; the trains terminate in Harrachov...
- Oldřichovský Špičák (Buschullersdorfer Spitzberg), 724 m
History
The first settlements in the area date back to prehistoryPrehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
. Later on, Celt
Celt
The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
s, German
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
tribes resides in the valleys until they left in 5th century. Later came Lusatian Sorbs. In the 14th century, German-speaking colonists came and started clearing of the dense primeval forests. Permanent settlements were established. In the 16th century, several glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
works were founded. Glassmaking had a profound effect on the ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
. The primeval forest was gradually replaced by fast-growing spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
monoculture. Other important industries included tin-mining, metallurgy and textile.
The Tabulový kámen , 1072 m) on the northern edge of the Smrk Mountain marked the border between the properties of the Counts of Gallas
Gallas
*Matthias Gallas - Austrian soldier*William Gallas - French footballer*Gallas - Ethnic group in Ethiopia...
in Friedland
Frýdlant v Cechách
Frýdlant, sometimes cited also as Frýdlant v Čechách is a town in the Liberec District of the Liberec Region in the Czech Republic. It has approximately 7,500 inhabitants and lies in the historic Bohemia region on the outskirts of the Jizera Mountains....
, Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, the von Gersdorff family from Meffersdorf, Upper Lusatia
Upper Lusatia
Upper Lusatia is a region a biggest part of which belongs to Saxony, a small eastern part belongs to Poland, the northern part to Brandenburg. In Saxony, Upper Lusatia comprises roughly the districts of Bautzen and Görlitz , in Brandenburg the southern part of district Oberspreewald-Lausitz...
, and the Counts of Schaffgotsch from Schreiberhau
Szklarska Poreba
Szklarska Poręba is a town in Jelenia Góra County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. The town has a population of around 7,000...
, Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
.
In the second half of the 20 century the character of the Jizera Mountains changed completely. The German population of the area was expelled
Expulsion of Germans after World War II
The later stages of World War II, and the period after the end of that war, saw the forced migration of millions of German nationals and ethnic Germans from various European states and territories, mostly into the areas which would become post-war Germany and post-war Austria...
in 1945 and replaced by Poles on the now Polish and Czechs on the Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
n side of the mountains. The ecosystem was badly hit by emissions, produced by lignite
Lignite
Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, or Rosebud coal by Northern Pacific Railroad,is a soft brown fuel with characteristics that put it somewhere between coal and peat...
fired power station
Power station
A power station is an industrial facility for the generation of electric energy....
s located in the Zittau
Zittau
Zittau is a city in the south east of the Free State of Saxony, Germany, close to the border tripoint of Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. , there are 28,638 people in the city. It is part of the Görlitz district....
basin. Weakened spruce forest, less resistant against various types of parasites
Parasitism
Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host . These are now called macroparasites...
, were on the verge of extinction. The higher parts of the mountains, once densely wooded, became largely treeless, in part also because of excessive deforestation. New roads cut through the once secluded landscape. The situation improved only after the fall of communism
Revolutions of 1989
The Revolutions of 1989 were the revolutions which overthrew the communist regimes in various Central and Eastern European countries.The events began in Poland in 1989, and continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and...
in 1989. Open-pit
Open-pit mining
Open-pit mining or opencast mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....
coal mines in the former East Germany were closed, as well as several major power plants. Emission filters were installed at the immense Turów power station
Turów
Turów may refer to several places in Poland:*Turów, Gmina Głogów in Lower Silesian Voivodeship *Turów, Gmina Pęcław in Lower Silesian Voivodeship *Turów, a former village in Gmina Bogatynia, Lower Silesian Voivodeship...
in Bogatynia
Bogatynia
Bogatynia is a town in Zgorzelec County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland, close to the tripoint of the Czech, German and Polish borders. The town lies approximately south of Zgorzelec, and west of the regional capital Wrocław. As of 2006 it had 19,068 inhabitants.The...
on the Polish side of Lusatian Neisse
Lusatian Neisse
The Lusatian Neisse is a long river in Central Europe. The river has its source in the Jizera Mountains near Nová Ves nad Nisou, Czech Republic, reaching the tripoint with Poland and Germany at Zittau after , and later forms the Polish-German border on a length of...
. At the same time large-scale reforestation projects were started.
Tourism
The Jizera Mountains are an attractive location for winter sports, cycling and hiking. The centre for both downhill skiing and ski run is Bedřichov. The international cross-country races Jizerská 50 and Bieg Piastów (in Polana Jakuszycka) take place there. Its summer MTB counterpart is also gaining popularity.
The towns surrounding the mountains include Liberec
Liberec
Liberec is a city in the Czech Republic. Located on the Lusatian Neisse and surrounded by the Jizera Mountains and Ještěd-Kozákov Ridge, it is the fifth-largest city in the Czech Republic....
, Frýdlant v Čechách
Frýdlant v Cechách
Frýdlant, sometimes cited also as Frýdlant v Čechách is a town in the Liberec District of the Liberec Region in the Czech Republic. It has approximately 7,500 inhabitants and lies in the historic Bohemia region on the outskirts of the Jizera Mountains....
, Nové Město pod Smrkem
Nové Mesto pod Smrkem
Nové Město pod Smrkem is a small town in the Czech Republic, four kilometers from the border with Poland. It has 4,050 inhabitants.- People :...
, Świeradów Zdrój, Szklarska Poręba
Szklarska Poreba
Szklarska Poręba is a town in Jelenia Góra County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. The town has a population of around 7,000...
, Desná, Tanvald
Tanvald
Tanvald is a town in the northern Czech Republic. Its population was 6,836 as of August 28, 2006.The town has direct rail connection with Prague and Dresden. Traffic on the railway line to Jelenia Góra in Poland was restricted in 1945; the trains terminate in Harrachov...
and Jablonec nad Nisou
Jablonec nad Nisou
Jablonec nad Nisou is a town in northern Bohemia, the second largest town of the Liberec Region. It is known as a mountain resort in the Jizera Mountains, an education centre, and a centre of world-production of glass and jewellery...
.