Wachtküppel

The Wachtküppel is a 705-metre-high hill in the Rhön range, part of the Hessische Rhön Nature Park and the Rhön Biosphere Reserve. It stands near the town of Gersfeld in the Fulda district, with Poppenhausen two and a half kilometres to the northwest. The hill is topped by a small rocky summit that rises only a few metres above the surrounding slopes. The hill once served as an outpost linked to nearby Ebersburg castle, built around 1200 to warn of danger by signal fires. The remains include a ruined stone tower, storehouse and earthen ramparts. In 1270 the post was destroyed when the castle fell to troops from Fulda Abbey. A new cross was raised in 1951 to honour war dead, replacing earlier monuments. The hill’s volcanic rock contains so much magnetite that compasses fail to point reliably there. A footpath leads to the summit where wide views stretch across the Rhön hills. At the base a geology trail starts from a nearby car park, explaining the local rock formations. A small chapel, the Wendelinuskapelle, stands near the hill’s eastern edge. Built in stages from 1945 onwards, it houses a relic of Saint Wendelin brought from St Wendel in the Saarland. A stone memorial to the priest Hermann Mott, who organised the first services there, stands beside the chapel.