Stamping point 162 / Kreuztalsklippe

The Kreuztalsklippe is a rock formation with a viewpoint, north-east of the climatic health resort of Wieda and to the left of the small river Wieda.

From the van­ta­ge point, you can enjoy a pic­tures­que view of Ober­wie­da and the Käse­berg with the bell tower, the Kni­cking and the Zachariaskopf.

In 1127, Wie­da was first men­tio­ned as a smel­ting works belon­ging to Wal­ken­ried Monas­tery, but not as a vil­la­ge. After the sup­pres­si­on of the peasant upri­sing of 1525, rebel­lious peasants from Thu­rin­gia moved to the Harz Moun­ta­ins, whe­re the free­dom of the moun­ta­ins gua­ran­teed them per­so­nal safe­ty.
An iron smel­ting works in Wie­da is first docu­men­ted in 1562, the importance of which is clo­se­ly lin­ked to the extra­c­tion of iron ore from the Kirch­berg vein in the Kas­ten­tal val­ley. At the begin­ning of the 17th cen­tu­ry, the hig­hest blast fur­nace in the Braun­schweig-Blan­ken­burg Harz regi­on at the time was built with a height of 6.84 meters. 

The pre­sent church was con­se­cra­ted in 1778 and at the same time the free-stan­ding bell tower was erec­ted on the Käse­berg oppo­si­te so that the bells could be heard throug­hout the valley.

In the 19th cen­tu­ry, many peo­p­le from Wie­da emi­gra­ted to Ame­ri­ca, which led to the blast fur­nace, which had been reno­va­ted in the mean­ti­me, being demo­lished in 1863. The workers hel­ped them­sel­ves and ran a smel­ter as a pro­duc­tion coöpe­ra­ti­ve, which beca­me famous for the Wie­da fur­naces built here, but was dis­sol­ved in 1972. 

The site of the Wie­daer Hüt­te bur­ned down almost com­ple­te­ly in a major fire on July 23, 1973 and was con­ver­ted into a spa park with a ten­nis hall in 1975.

The „Wie­daer Krip­pen­weih­nacht“ with count­less Christ­mas trees and num­e­rous crib sta­ti­ons invi­tes visi­tors to the „Krip­pen­dorf“ on all four Advent weekends.

From Mit­tel­wie­da, you can reach the Kreuz­tals­klip­pe from the bus stop via the sign­pos­ted hiking trail.