Monumentberg

The Monumentberg is a hill rising 293 metres above sea level near the village of Groß Radisch in the Upper Lusatia region of Saxony. It belongs to the low ridge called the Hohen Dubrau, which stretches for about four kilometres north of Groß Radisch towards the edge of the Upper Lusatian Heath and Pond Landscape. The hill’s slopes drop steeply to the north but level out gently toward the south. A monument to Major Johann Carl Adolf von Nostitz was erected on the summit in 1801, giving the hill its first name, Nostitzhöhe. Later the name changed to Monumentberg as memory of von Nostitz faded. In the 1860s the hill served as Station Number 2 Nostitzhöhe in the Royal Saxon triangulation network, and a survey column stood there. In 1994 the monument was restored, and between 2000 and 2001 a 25-metre observation tower and a small restaurant were built on the summit. The Dubrau quartzite that forms the hill is a fine-grained grey rock resting on ancient Precambrian greywacke. Patches of reddish sandstone, conglomeratic quartzite and quartzitic schist appear in places. From the top of the tower visitors look out over the surrounding heaths and ponds, the ridge of the Hohen Dubrau, and the countryside toward Groß Radisch.