Bielplatz Bellwitz

Bielplatz Bellwitz stands on a rocky outcrop above the Löbauer Wasser, a loop in the river about 800 metres south-west of Bellwitz, a district of Löbau in the Landkreis Görlitz. The site is also called Wallburg Bellwitz or Alte Schanze, recalling its origins as a Slav hill fort. The fort was built around the year 1000 to guard an old Neisse ford on a trade route that ran from Göda near Bautzen through Jauernick-Buschbach to Silesia. Travelling merchants had to pay tolls at such crossings. The surviving remains form a section of wall with an outer rampart that once enclosed a horseshoe-shaped stronghold. After the conquest the fort remained in use during the early German period. Early in the 20th century quarrying removed much of the earthwork, leaving only 36 metres of wall standing. The surviving bank is now about five metres high, and its crest varies from four to fourteen metres wide. Visitors reach the Bielplatz along a short path from Bellwitz. The remaining wall runs roughly north–south, its inner face still rising steeply above the slope. From the top there are wide views across the Löbauer Wasser valley and towards the Georgewitzer Skala ridge. The site is protected as a cultural monument and offers a quiet place to stand where medieval merchants once paused to pay their dues.