Schindhübel Tower

The Schindhübelturm is a 17-metre-high wooden lookout tower standing on the summit of the Schindhübel, a 570.7-metre hill in the central Pfälzerwald. It lies about three kilometres west of Iggelbach, a village that belongs to Elmstein in the Bad Dürkheim district. Two small car parks along the K 17 road give walkers easy access to the base of the hill. The tower was built in 1975 by engineers from Speyer and a plaque on its side remembers everyone who helped erect it. In 2004 the structure was repaired, replacing parts of the wood that had weathered over the years. The design is a six-sided timber frame with a clockwise staircase of five flights, each flight having thirteen steps and four landings between them. From the covered viewing platform fourteen and a half metres above ground, visitors look east across the Pfälzerwald to the Haardt ridge at its edge. On clear days the Donnersberg, a 686.5-metre peak in the North Palatinate hill country, appears to the north. Farther south-southeast, eighty-three kilometres away, the Hornisgrinde in the northern Black Forest can sometimes be seen. Views to the southwest, however, are blocked by the higher Eschkopf ridge nearby.