Tharandt Forest

The Tharandt Forest (German: Tharandter Wald) 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 ("Tharandt Forest - Saxony's most beautiful forest"), 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 (Grillenburg Hunting Lodge) and was also a source of timber and charcoal for mining (charcoal burning) and the residence city of Dresden (timber rafting). Forest glassworks are also discernible near Hetzdorf (Glasergrund) and Hartha (Glasbruch). The beekeepers and forest keepers (collectively called Zeidler) that settled in Fördergersdorf and Hartha supplied honey and beeswax. And artificial ponds are still used today to farm fish.

In the early 18th century in the Tännichtgrund bottom near Naundorf in the Tharandt Forest was the hideaway of the notorious robber, Lips Tullian and his Black Guard (Schwarzen Garde). Tullian was feared throughout Saxony. His lair is stilled recalled by the Lips Tullian Rocks (Lips-Tullian-Felsen) named after him and the old Thieves' Chamber (Diebskammer).

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