Red Sandstone of Eppenbrunn

Useful Information

photography — Altschlossfelsen, Red Sandstone of Eppenbrunn, Pfälzer Bergland, Germany. Public Domain.

Location:	66957 Eppenbrunn. (49.1100732, 7.5513464)
Open:	No restrictions. [2024]
Fee:	free. [2024]
Classification:	Erosional Cave Frost Weathering Cave
Light:	bring torch
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Red Sandstone of Eppenbrunn
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1954	First excavations.
1964	Oberstudienrat L. Eckrich and a group of students discover black, smoothed shards from the La Tène period (450-50 BC) at the Altschlossfelsen.
1991	Altschlossfelsen declared a natural and cultural monument.

Description

Red Sandstone of Eppenbrunn is not a name, or as location, it is a description. At the Franco-German border, on the hills between Eppenbrunn in Germany and Roppeviller in France, there are around half a dozen large rock formations made of red sandstone. Some of them have their own names, for example the Hohler Felsen (Hollow Rock), the Teufelstisch (Devil's Table) and the Altschlossfelsen (Old castle rock), in French barrière naturelle de l'Altchlossfelsen. A network of hiking trails runs along the rock formations and the individual points of interest are signposted. Access is from the hiking car park at the end of Roppeviller, from the Spießweiher hiking car park or from the outskirts of Eppenbrunn, for example at the end of Altschloßstraße.

The rocks here are made of red-coloured sandstone of the Lower Triassic, which is locally named Buntsandstein, because of the colouring. It is weathered by wind and rain, but above all by frost blasting. This weathering occurs unevenly, depending on the resistance of the respective rock. There are ledges, shallow grottoes and shelters. However, fissures in the rock also provide a path for the water and are eroded and thus widened. The fissures are predominantly vertical, and entire stone packages are separated from the rest of the rock by the widened fissures, forming tower-like structures. Sometimes the fissures are only widened in the area of the softer sandstone layer, which can form a narrow but high through-cave. And if the softer layer forms the base of a cliff, mushroom-like or table-like structures are also formed. Such a formation with a harder slab on top is even called the Teufelstisch (Devil's Table). The layers of sandstone have different shades of red, from intense, slightly purplish red to warm red to whitish with a slight reddish or beige colour. This depends on the proportion of colouring iron oxide, but is also dependent on the type of sand. The higher the quartz content, the whiter the colour and the more resistant to weathering. As a result, the protruding slabs tend to be greyish, while the cavities have red walls.

At showcaves.com, we are dedicated to underground tourist sights, and strictly speaking, there are none here. The small caves And yet they have a multitude of small caves, not just overhanging rocks, but real through caves along fissures. The caves generally have no names, with the possible exception of the Hollow Rock. The caves are very easy to cross and because they are so short, no light is necessary. Nevertheless, as always, we recommend taking a torch with you. So this page was not named for a cave but for the area, the red Buntsandstein rocks around Eppenbrunn.

This area is definitely worth being a geosite of a geopark, unfortunately there is no geopark in this area. We list such geotopes only if there is a connection to caves, which is the case here. The whole area is full of such rock formations, there is for example another, more famous Teufelstisch (Devil's Table). We listed this site because it is the one with most caves.