Železná hůrka
The volcano on the Czech-Bavarian border
In close proximity to the Czech-Bavarian border lies the Železná Hůrka National Natural Monument, established to protect the relict of the youngest Bohemian volcano. The volcano forms a rather small hill on a fault line that penetrates the mica schists of the Dyleň Crystalline Complex. Komorní Hůrka also lies on the same structure nearly 15 km away.
The deposits from two different eruptions are clearly visible in the old quarry face. The loose tuff material (called tephra) consists mostly of olivine nephelinite lava. The so-called xenoliths, which are allogenic fragments of the crystalline basement, of ultramafic rocks of the Earth´s mantle, and of magmatic crystal cumulates, are less represented.
The author of the first written account of Železná Hůrka is J. W. Goethe, who visited the locality during his stay in Mariánské Lázně in 1823.
Forest footpaths lead from the volcano to a gazebo with an acidulous mineral spring at the site of the former Kyselecký Hamr homestead. On the German side lies Neualbenreuth with the well-known thermal and radon spas of Sibyllenbad. A popular tourist destination is the Doubrava Open-Air Museum with typical examples of folk architecture of the Cheb region. A private ethnographic museum is located in the half-timbered Rustler Farmhouse.
