Bastei

The Bastei massif is one of the oldest and most important tourist centres in the region of the front parts of the Saxon Switzerland. Especially here you get a long-lasting and fascinating impression of the bizarre landscape, which has already fascinated many painters and poets as there is: Caspar David Friedrich. The Bastei is situated approximately 200 metres above sea level, which is circa 110m above the sea level here and offers a climb of circa 30-45 minutes (convenient) or is to be reachable from Niederrathen via the "Schwedenlöcher" within 70-80 minutes.

If you have decided for the more convenient climb- then you have to cross the 76m-long "Basteibrücke", which is protected as a technical monument in our days. The "Basteibrücke" is, as in former times as well as today, the link between the Bastei and the Fortress Neurathen.

At those times of the 30-Year War, 1618-1648, nearing aggressors were attacked with heavy rocks weighing hundredweights, which in turn made the bridge collapse and took the aggressors with them to the ground.

You can gain a unique view from the Bastei outlook which is the furthest part above the river Elbe and is to be seen as the origin part of the Bastei, to most massifs of the front parts of the Bastei like the Lilienstein, the Fortress Königstein, Rauenstein and Pfaffenstein and as far as to the Bohemian Switzerland or to Dresden.