Königstein Fortress

Just a little outside the city of Dresden there is a massive fortress called königstein.  Cousin Peggy had been talking it up and had given us a brochure she had acquired on a previous visit, so we decided to have a gander.  We hopped on our trusty public transportation bus which we took to the S-bahn (a type of between city train).  Once again, our trusty eurail train passes came in very handy as they were also valid for this type of train!  The train ride itself took about 40 minutes or so and let us off at the base of the mountain that königstein is built on (well in the town at the base of the mountain but you get the idea).  You can see the fortress perched atop a very steep and rocky mountainside and it makes one wonder how in the world they could have built such a massive structure up there.  The logistics of getting the building materials to the site and then actually getting them into place blew my mind.  With the first recorded establishment on the mountain dated in the 1200's, it took literally hundreds of years to finish.  Construction continued in various shapes and forms up until the 1700's (some minor buildings etc were added after but all the big stuff finished then) at which point it became truly impressive. 
Some of the noteworthy features of the fortress include the second deepest well in all of Europe, the largest wine cellar of any fortress of the like, and it was never captured.  In fact, I believe most people took one look at it just said, "well, forget that".  Seriously, trying to invade königstein in the days before airplanes would have been about as effective as treating a sunburn with more sun.

This is the view from where we got off the train.  You can see the fortress up on the hill there; it doesn't took too terribly impressive from this distance but trust me, it is.  Also, the trees on the hillside mask just how rugged the terrain is; which we found out first hand on the hike up.

We stepped off the train and began to head into town.  There were some of the usual restaurants and such, but overall, the town is very small.  Unless you cheat and take a tour bus to see the fortress, getting to it is not exactly easy.  You first have to locate a not-so-well marked road/path which is very steep, and of course, made out of cobblestone.  It had rained slightly earlier in the day and was misting some while we were winding our way up the hill, so the path itself was a little bit slippery and dangerous (we took a couple spills).  After what was about a 30 minute hike, your exhausted adventurers reached the walls of the fortress and tried to catch our breath.

Whats that you say?  A ladder could get over the wall?  NONSENSE! 

For real, how did they build this thing?   It is part mountain rock, part man molded rock, and 100% massive.  If you look closely at the top of the lower wall, you may notice it is lined with pointy spear-like metal pieces.  Quaint.

The walkway to the entrance.





Now that we had finally made it up the hill, it was time to check out the digs so we made our way inside.  Immediately upon entrance one is struck with the sheer magnitude of not only the establishment itself, but the view of the surrounding area.  Königstein was built square in the middle of some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen.  The rolling hills of Saxony are in full view and with the summer sun lighting up the greens and yellows of the vegetation, I gotta say, you'd be hard pressed to build a 'humble abode' with a better view.

Just about where the bend in the river is, is where we got off the train.  You can see part of the town on the right.

Not a bad view, eh?

Once inside, we proceeded to make our way around the perimeter to check out more of the view as well as some of the battlements which included cannons and sweet look-out perches for heavens knows what sort of nasty defenses (from that height a rock would do enough damage if well aimed).  It seemed like every time we turned a corner the view couldn't get any better... then we'd turn another corner and BAM holy panorama batman!

Part of the 'newer' additions.  königstein saw use in both world wars as a POW camp/medical facility for treating wounded soldiers.  Again, dig on the wicked view of the land.  The defenders could see anything coming and had the guns to keep them off the lawn (insert angry old man fist shake here).

Matty checking out one of the lookout stations found here and there along the perimeter.

Here I am checking out one of the historic cannons (this one was circa mid 1700's, I believe 1741 was the date stamped on the barrel).  Being on the receiving end of a blast from several of these defending guns would have been terrifying!

After completing our perimeter inspection, we made our way towards the middle of property and came across a little war museum.  This had some history about the fortress as well as examples of weapons used during the times when it was active (not necessarily used in the fort itself, but during the same period of time i.e. Napoleonic wars, WWI, WWII etc.).  We spent a good chunk of time in the museum checking out the examples of weapons and uniforms, so by the time we left to see the rest, the grounds were closing.  The brochure we had was a couple years old and they had scaled back their visiting hours a bit, making closing time 2 hours earlier the day we visited.  But it was just as well, as we were getting hungry and it was time to head back to Dresden to see the final Euro cup soccer game at Magdalena and Stefan's.  (Spain vs Italy, Italy who had knocked out Germany got beaten badly by the Spanish).  After a long day of sightseeing, hiking, and soccer we were ready to hit the hay and start the next day's adventures!