Germany observation tower
Büchenbronn Observation Tower
You can see 158 km from here, looking north.
Calculating the panorama…
Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.
The view
Up to 158 km away.
Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.
Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).
- 158 kmFarthest ridgelooking north
- 100%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
- 320Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
- 614 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint
The 320 peaks you can name from here
From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.
From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.
The sun
The best sunsets are in April and from July to September.
When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.
- Jansouth-west12 min before the sea-level sunset20%
- Febwest6 min before the sea-level sunset25%
- Marwest4 min before the sea-level sunset32%
- Aprwest2 min before the sea-level sunset37%
- Maynorth-west2 min before the sea-level sunset31%
- Junnorth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset32%
- Julnorth-west2 min before the sea-level sunset36%
- Augwest2 min before the sea-level sunset36%
- Sepwest2 min before the sea-level sunset38%
- Octwest6 min before the sea-level sunset29%
- Novsouth-west12 min before the sea-level sunset20%
- Decsouth-west12 min before the sea-level sunset19%
- Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
- Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
- %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).
The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.
The place
Büchenbronn Observation Tower.
Observation tower near Büchenbronn in the Black Forest
Büchenbronn Observation Tower is an observation tower in Germany, 614 m above the sea.
On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 158 km away, looking north.
320 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Einkorn (510 m), 87 km away.
The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 100% of the circle.
The skies are clearest in April and from July to September.

Get there and stay
- Going upfree entryOfficial site↗
- Campingplatz Birkenhofcampsite · 3.7 km · 9 within 10 km
- Gasthaus Grüner Baumplace to stay · 3.7 km · 91 within 10 km
- Engelsbrandnearest town · 1.3 km in a straight linePlaces to stay in EngelsbrandBooking.com · sponsored link↗
- Karlsruhe Baden-Baden Airport (FKB)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 42 km in a straight lineCar hire at FKB airport (Rheinmünster)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above
The viewpoint and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.

Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 24other viewpoints within 5 kmBüchenbronner Aussichtsturm, Burgruine Kräheneck, Heukopfhütte and 21 more
- 7named peaks within 5 kmBuchberg, Ilgenberg, Hardbergkopf and 4 more
- 2cable car and funicular stations within 5 km
- 111marked trails within 3 kmWestweg [01. Pforzheim→Dobel], Mittelweg, Rundwanderweg um Huchenfeld "Keibelweg" and 108 more
- 151shelters and huts within 5 kmHeukopfhütte, Förster Wolf Pavillon, S-Jägerhüttle and 148 more
- 141car parks within 3 km
- 12restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- 9campsites within 10 kmCampingplatz Birkenhof, Höhen-Camping Langenbrand, Quellgrund and 6 more
- 91places to stay within 10 kmGasthaus Grüner Baum, Gaststätte Sonnenberg, Jugendherberge Burg Rabeneck Pforzheim and 88 more
- visitor centres within 5 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
What you see from Büchenbronn Observation Tower, and what is near.
Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.
Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.
Photographs
The view, as people saw it.
Other viewpoints nearby.

Büchenbronn Observation Tower
Germany
- 77Viewyas Score
- 158 kmFarthest ridge
- 320Peaks in view
- 614 mAltitude
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q874386) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Sun | J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms |
| Peaks in view | Peakyas (Wikidata, CC0) |
| Panorama and altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Clouds | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas, Forestyas, Birdyas, Darkskyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.





