Elster Valley

Länder: Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia

The 247km/153mi long Weisse (White) Elster, a right-bank tributary of the Saale, rises on the western edge of the Elstergebirge, in the frontier area between Germany and Czechoslovakia. In its upper course, at heights above 450 m/1,475ft, it receives numerous tributaries from the upper Vogtland. At Wünschendorf, the "gateway of the Vogtland", the river emerges from the hills at a height of 200 m/650ft. It then flows through the foreland area between Gera and Zeitz and continues through the Leipzig lowlands to join the Saale above Halle. Around Leipzig open-cast lignite mining has made some diversions of the river necessary. Pirk Dam

On the upper Elster, depending on geological conditions, narrow stretches of valley alternate with wider ones. Between Bad Elster and Oelsnitz, center of the Vogtland carpet-making industry, there is room for the road and the railroad to run together down the valley, but below the Pirk Dam, at the bend in the river near Weischlitz, the valley narrows sharply. Here the river is flanked on both sides by sheer walls of diabase rock.

Steinicht landscape reserve

The best known and most beautiful gorge in the Elster valley is the Steinicht landscape reserve between Plauen and Elsterberg, where the diabase crags on either side of the river rise to heights of 60-70 m/200-230ft.

Elstertal Bridge

Below the junction of the Trieb, which here opens out into a large lake (4.5 sq. km/1.75 sq. mi) formed by the Pöhl Dam, with the Weisse Elster the two-level Elstertal Bridge (1846-51; 283 m/309yd long, 69 m/226ft high) carries the Dresden-Plauen railroad line over the Elster valley.

*Göltzschtal Bridge

The dimensions of the Elstertal Bridge, however, are far exceeded by those of the famous Göltzschtal Bridge (1846-51), which spans the Göltzsch at Netzschkau (5km/3mi before its junction with the Weisse Elster above Greiz). The Göltzschtal Bridge is one of the largest brick-built arched bridges in the world, 574 m/628yd long and 78 m/256ft high, with 81 arches on four levels.