Hangelstein

The Hangelstein is a low mountain rising 305 metres above sea level, six kilometres northeast of Giessen in central Hesse. It belongs to the Vogelsberg range, a volcanic upland where basalt rock dominates the landscape. The western slope shows the Felsenkanzel, a ledge of horizontal basalt columns once quarried in the Middle Ages. Almost the entire wooded hill is protected as a nature reserve and a European Natura 2000 site. The hill matters because rare warmth-loving plants grow here on basalt soils. Botanists such as Johann Christian Senckenberg studied the flora long ago, and the 107-hectare summit plateau is still regarded as one of Hesse’s richest botanical areas. The woods shelter rare lichens like the green besom-moss and provide nesting for birds. Archaeologists have also found traces of Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements, including a Celtic ring-wall. Visitors walk shaded paths through mixed oak-hornbeam woods and along steep ravines. The summit offers wide views over the surrounding countryside. The reserve is quiet except on fine weekends when local people jog, cycle or stroll along its trails. To the north and west the motorways frame the hill, while rivers Lumda and Lahn mark its southern and eastern edges.