The Calauer Schweiz

The Calauer Schweiz is a nature preservation area south of the Spreewald. With its springs and bogs, lakes and mounds it one of the largest and most wooded protected areas in the district Oberspreewald-Lausitz
in the south of Brandenburg.

The town Calau and little villages like
Buchwäldchen, Gosda, Zwietow, Weißag, Settinchen, Cabel, Werchow and Plieskendorf are situated at the fringe of this nature reserve, whose idyll charms nature lovers as well as hikers.

The first recorded human settlement of the Calauer Schweiz stems from the Neolithic period (4000-1500 before common era). Near the village Settinchen a stone box grave with two flint stone axes were found in 1937.

Finds from the bronze time have also been uncovered here. In the middle of the plateau of the Calauer hills, south of the Kesselberg, used to be a village with the name 'Biehlen' in the Middle Age but it was already destroyed in 1527.
The village's mill with apiary was located in the ravine of the Kesselgraben. Only potshards here and there are evidence of its existence.