Bornberg

The Bornberg rises 520 metres above the North Palatine Uplands in Rheinland-Pfalz. Two summits crown the hill: Kiefernkopf and Trautmannsberg. Streams such as the Talbach, Jettenbach and Reichenbach flow around its slopes. Nearby villages include Oberweiler im Tal, Eßweiler, Jettenbach and Bosenbach. The hamlet of Schneeweiderhof sits on the hill’s lower slopes and belongs to Eßweiler. The hill’s basalt quarries opened from 1840 and were worked until 1970 by Basalt AG. Quarrymen lived in the Kolonie settlement at Schneeweiderhof, built in 1924 and once home to its own school. After quarrying ended, the old pits became a county rubbish tip in 1988. A weather station was added in 2005, and in 2008 a four-hectare solar farm started generating 1.5 MW of power. A 151-metre telecommunication tower owned by Deutsche Telekom broadcasts radio programmes across the region. A natural gas pipeline crosses the hill, running from the Netherlands to Italy. Excavations before the pipeline’s expansion uncovered a Roman estate farm and Celtic traces on the southern slope. The hill today blends industry, archaeology and renewable energy against a backdrop of quiet villages.