Burg Stolpen

After our hike in the Sächsische Schweiz, Ronny and I headed to a little village called Stolpen, where we visited the Burg Stolpen (an old castle or maybe it was an old fortress. I am not quite sure what the proper translation of Burg is!) that has been impeccably restored. We ended up spending more time visiting the grounds of this old castle/fortress than we did hiking! The castle/fortress was, like most others of its time, built on a hill, which meant we had beautiful views of the little village that sprawled at the bottom. We took some time off from our visiting to enjoy an iced coffee on a terrace on the grounds of the castle/fortress. We climbed all the towers that were to be climbed and visited all the underground rooms that served as jails or storage for food. The castle/fortress lies on a volcanic fault, and although there has been no volcanic action for many thousands of years, an eruption in the future is not out of the question. The castle/fortress was mostly built out of Basalt stone, a stone which has a distinctive shape, and which was the result of the previous eruption. The basalt hill, on which the Burg was built, is one of the most important volcanic rock formation in Saxony. The castle well, with its 82 meters, is the deepest well ever sunk into basalt anywhere in the world.
Another must-see if you find yourself in the region!