Tharandt Forest

The Tharandt Forest is a landscape in the centre of the German Free State of Saxony and lies southwest of the forest town of Tharandt, south of the town of Wilsdruff, roughly between the cities of Freiberg and Dresden. Administratively it is fully part of the borough of Tharandt today and bears a legally-protected strapline with the text: Tharandter Wald – schönster Wald Sachsens , which goes back to the tourist advertisements of the 1920s.

In the 12th century, the village of Warnsdorf existed for a short time in the middle of the forest by the water-rich Warnsdorf Spring of the Triebisch river. The foundations of a large Roman site from the 13th century were discovered in the neighbouring village of Grillenburg which, then as now, was completely surrounded by the forest. Several routes run through the forest, including the Princes' or Lords' Way. During the Early Modern Period the forest was a hunting ground for the territorial princes and was also a source of timber and charcoal for mining and the residence city of Dresden . Forest glassworks are also discernible near Hetzdorf and Hartha . The beekeepers and forest keepers that settled in Fördergersdorf and Hartha supplied honey and beeswax. And artificial ponds are still used today to farm fish.

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