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Bielatal

The Biela rises in the sandstone rocks of Ostrov in Bohemia and, after some 18 kilometres, flows into the Elbe at Königstein; it is first mentioned in 1412 as “die Bela”. Because it has a good gradient and a steady flow of water, numerous waterwheels turned along it for centuries – for hammer works, smelting works, grain mills, sawmills and board mills. The Bielatal was once an industrial valley.

Pirnisch Eisen

Iron ore had been mined near Berggießhübel since the 14th century – a particularly rich magnetite ore. Accounts for the years 1443 to 1445 already name 20 hammer works that processed it. Around 1590 the chronicler Petrus Albinus praised the products as “Pirnisch Eisen” – Pirna iron – an early brand name for cannonballs, stove plates and boiling pans.

The hammer works from the source to Hütten

Downstream, the works were lined up one after another: the Eiland hammer works in Bohemia, the Oberhütte near Rosenthal, the Brausenstein hammer – already working before 1410 – the Neidberg hammer, the Reichstein hammer and, in Hütten, the Middle and Lower Reichhammer, the Greifenhammer and, from 1541, the Old Foundry. In Hütten, stove plates up to 1.65 metres high were cast, among others for the palaces in Dresden and Augustusburg; today the Louisenthal paper mill stands there, making paper for banknotes.

Blast furnaces and the end of the hammer era

In the 17th century blast furnaces were added: in 1653 at the Oberhütte, in 1661 at Neidberg, in 1693 at Brausenstein. The works devoured vast amounts of charcoal and laid waste to the forest; in 1731 an electoral forestry ordinance took away their cheap timber. After that, iron hardly paid any more – by 1805 every works in the district had given up, and many carried on as grain mills, sawmills or board mills.

The Brausenstein blast furnace

The Brausenstein hammer works is mentioned in 1410 as the “hamer in dem Brussensteyn”. In 1693 Christian Friedrich Münch had a blast furnace about eight metres high built, into which the year 1700 is carved; in 1704 the works supplied cannonballs to the Dresden arsenal. Operations ended around 1750. The furnace was rebuilt from 1978 and is the only surviving witness to smelting technology in the whole district – it also features in the village's coat of arms.

The Oberhütte near Rosenthal

Around 1452 Rosenthal is mentioned together with its hammer works, and in 1518 the name “Obirhütte” appears. Hans Joachim Münch built a blast furnace here in 1653; cannons, cannonballs and grenades were cast, among others for the Dresden arsenal. In 1726 operations ceased for lack of wood.

Ottomühle, Reichstein and the other mills

The Ottomühle in the upper valley was a grain mill; the inn gives 1548 as the year it was founded, while a walking guide from the Rölke mountain publishing house gives its first mention as 1620. The Reichstein mill is mentioned in 1549 as the grain mill of the Hammergut Reichstein; by 1791 Reichstein is described merely as a “defunct Hammerguth”. Further down, in Hütten and Königstein, lay among others the Schinkemühle, the Zeibigmühle, the Reicheltmühle, the Hofemühle and the Brückmühle.

Rosenthal, Hermsdorf and the municipality

Rosenthal is mentioned in 1356 in a document of the archiepiscopal chancery in Prague and belonged to Bohemia until 1503. Hermsdorf is documented from 1410, and Brausenstein was part of it. In 1933 Hermsdorf and Reichstein were merged to form the municipality of Bielatal, and in 1994 this joined with Rosenthal to become the municipality of Rosenthal-Bielatal.

The trackless railway and the climbing rocks

There was never a railway into the Bielatal – but from 1901 Max Schiemann's “Gleislose Bielathal-Motorbahn”, the Trackless Bielathal Motor Railway, one of the first trolleybuses in the world, ran from Königstein to the Königsbrunn spa; by 1904 it was all over again. At around the same time, in 1904 and 1905, the Herkulessäulen, the Pillars of Hercules, were climbed for the first time. Today the Bielatal climbing area has 239 summits with more than 3400 climbing routes.

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As of: 09/2026

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