Recarbo coal cycle and hiking trail

Along the cycle path between Zeitz and Hohenmölsen you will experience the industrial history of the region

Coal is by far the largest fossil energy source on earth. Over the course of many millions of years, it has developed from plants that were exposed to high pressures and temperatures in deep layers of the earth. This process is called coalification and takes place in several stages. First peat is formed, then lignite, then hard coal and finally anthracite.
The lignite mining areas in the south-east of the Burgenland district belong to the Zeitz-Weißenfels lignite mining district. This area is characterised by the long tradition of mining, which began here more than 300 years ago. Initially, the coal was extracted by underground mining, followed by opencast mining from the 1970s onwards.

Around the turn of the century, mining developed into a determining economic sector for the region with large deep mines and opencast mines shaping the landscape. Parallel to this, a broad industry of coal processing and refinement developed, from briquette factories to smelters and coal liquefaction plants. Each of the technical epochs of the lignite industry leaves its unmistakable traces.

The landscape between Zeitz, Teuchern, Hohenmölsen and the border to Saxony is characterised by mining with its manifold effects in the form of open-cast mining fields, dumps, residual holes, dumps, underground quarries and the remains of industrial plants.

Embark on a search for clues in a region that has changed and developed like no other in the last decades. Discover the material witnesses of the industrialisation of Central Germany and actively experience the mining history of the recarbo ERLEBNISREGION!

Pathway:
Zeitz - Grana - Kretzschau - Luckenau - Trebnitz - Deuben - Naundorf - Mondsee recreation park