Stamp Station 162 / Kreuztalsklippe Lookout / Wieda

The Kreuztalsklippe is a cliff about 60 meters high with a viewing terrace that offers a beautiful view of the central part of the village of Wieda—including the row of houses on Bohlweg and at the entrance to the Silberbach settlement, as well as the buildings on Käseberg. In the very background, you can make out the Stöberhaigi peak, where the mountain hotel used to stand. 

The Kreuz­tal­sklippe is a cliff about 60 meters high with a view­ing ter­race that offers a beau­ti­ful view of the cen­tral part of the vil­lage of Wieda—including the row of hous­es on Bohlweg and at the entrance to the Sil­ber­bach set­tle­ment, as well as the build­ings on Käse­berg. In the very back­ground, you can make out the Stöber­hai­gi peak, where the moun­tain hotel used to stand. 

The Kreuz­tal­sklippe ris­es at the nar­row­est point of the Wie­da Val­ley, where, on either side of the Wie­da Stream, there is just enough room for the Bohlweg and the local road, includ­ing the sec­tion called “Am Kreuz­tal.” Only a sin­gle row of hous­es could fit on each of the steep moun­tain slopes. On both sides of the Wie­da, the moun­tains reach a height of about 500 meters (Knick­ing, Käse­berg, Füllenberg). 

The Süd­harzeisen­bahn rail­way line ran along Bohlweg from 1899 to 1963. Every Sep­tem­ber, the Wie­da street fes­ti­val “Spelle varn Schwelle” takes place there. Many of the for­mer mead­ows on the steep moun­tain slopes behind the hous­es are now forest­ed again. The res­i­den­tial devel­op­ment on the Käse­berg was not built until after 1956. On the slope of the Käse­berg is the “Bienenpfad” stamp sta­tion, estab­lished in 2017. From 1733 to 1890, this area served as a moun­tain ceme­tery and was con­vert­ed into a spa park in 1936. The bell house, which has stood here since 1721, is known local­ly as the bell tow­er and is con­sid­ered a land­mark of Wie­da. The Luther Church (built between 1770 and 1778), locat­ed across the Wie­da Val­ley, was designed with­out a bell tow­er because the bells and the tow­er clock were already sit­u­at­ed on the moun­tain­side at that time. 

Rocks repeat­ed­ly broke loose from the Kreuz­tal­sklippe cliff, endan­ger­ing res­i­dents liv­ing below the cliff.In 1915, a Bre­men-based com­pa­ny, com­mis­sioned by the ducal forestry author­i­ty, erect­ed a stur­dy fence—a steel structure—in the for­est below the cliff to pro­tect against falling rocks.

In 1930, the Kreuz­tal­sklippe look­out point was expand­ed by the Wie­da branch of the Harz Club through land lev­el­ing and sur­round­ed by an iron rail­ing, to which two plaques cast by the Wie­da Foundry (motifs: “Min­er” and “Wild Man”) were mounted.

On the obser­va­tion deck, bench­es and a shel­ter now invite hik­ers to take a break. Hans Peters—the long-serv­ing and dis­tin­guished chair­man of the Wie­da branch of the Harzklub—is the name­sake of the shel­ter. The bar­ri­er fac­ing the cliff was replaced in 2024 by the Wie­da branch of the Harzk­lub in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the THW Youth of Low­er Saxony. 

You can reach the Kreuz­tal­sklippe from the vil­lage in var­i­ous direc­tions. The short­est route goes along Schul­straße, past the Lamm retire­ment home, into the for­est, and onto the for­est trail. If you’re tak­ing the bus to Wie­da, you should get off at the “Am Kreuz­tal” stop.