Oybin, Mountain summit at 514 meters in Zittau Mountains, Germany

Oybin is a 514-metre sandstone table hill rising about 120 metres above the village of the same name in the Zittau Mountains. Its summit is split into a larger north plateau with the highest point and a smaller south plateau, separated by a roughly ten-metre-deep cleft. The whole top is taken up by the ruins of Oybin Castle, the Cölestiner monastery ruin, the parish cemetery and a camera obscura. The photograph shows the pale, rounded rock columns of its flanks, grooved by deep vertical clefts and topped by woodland.

The castle on Oybin was first mentioned in 1291, when Zittau destroyed a robber-baron stronghold here. From 1311 to 1316 Heinrich von Leipa expanded it into a fortified castle. In 1364 Charles IV built the imperial house as his retirement residence, and in 1369 he founded a Celestine monastery; its Gothic church, built with the Prague cathedral workshop, was completed in 1384. The monastery was dissolved during the Reformation, and in 1577 lightning set the church on fire.

Since 1972 the monastery ruin has served as a concert venue, valued for its acoustics; the traditional Mönchszug procession is among the events held there. The site also holds the mountain cemetery of the Oybin community and a camera obscura at the highest point of the plateau.

Marked trails from the town of Oybin lead upward to the summit, with regularly positioned rest spots to catch your breath. The terrain becomes steep in sections, so plan enough time for the climb.

The sandstone columns of the summit plateau are split by a cleft about ten metres deep into a northern and a smaller southern plateau; the highest point lies on the northern one. A camera obscura stands at the top, and the summit also holds the community's mountain cemetery.