Since July 1991, the Prënzebierg nature reserve has had a geological circuit called Circuit Giele Botter. It was the first geological circuit in Luxembourg and was followed by other geological circuits such as the one in the Pétrusse valley in Luxembourg city, “Mir ginn op d’Grouf” in Stolzemburg or the cross-border circuit “Geologischer Lehrpfad Machtum-Nittel-Wellen”. The route of the Giele Botter tour, which is about 3 km long, follows the disused quarry faces of the former open-cast mine.

The first mining concession in the Prënzebierg dates back to 1870, and in the 1930s there was intensive tunnel mining at the Giele Botter. Open-cast mining only began after the Second World War and was discontinued in 1977 due to the more ferrous and at the same time cheaper rocks from abroad. Since 20 November 1991, 255 hectares of the Prënzebierg have been classified as a national nature reserve and are also part of the European Natura 2000 network. Since October 2020, the site is one of the core zones of the Minett UNESCO Biosphere.

 

In a recent publication, researchers from the National Museum of Natural History focus on this geological tour and provide detailed explanations of the geology of the Giele Botter. The full article by Robert Weis, Ben Thuy and Laurent Garbay, published in the “Bulletin de la SNL“, can be found here.