Kaiserkrone, Mountain summit in Reinhardtsdorf-Schöna, Germany.
Kaiserkrone is a sandstone summit in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains near Reinhardtsdorf-Schöna in Saxony, Germany. At the top, three separate viewing platforms face different directions and give open views over the surrounding table hills and the Elbe valley below.
In the 19th century, Saxon Switzerland was discovered as a walking region and the summit drew naturalists and artists looking for remote rock scenery. The first trails were laid out during that period and most of them are still in use today.
The mountain sits along the Painters Path, a historic route that artists from the Romantic period walked through the Saxon Switzerland region. Walkers today follow the same trail and see the same rock formations and valley views that once inspired those painters.
Marked trails lead to the summit from several starting points around Reinhardtsdorf-Schöna, and the walk is manageable for people with a normal level of fitness. Sturdy footwear is a good idea since some sections run over bare rock or uneven ground.
At the southern foot of the Kaiserkrone lie sandstone rocks that Caspar David Friedrich sketched during a visit; he later used them as the ground beneath the wanderer in his painting "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog". Two recumbent lions carved in wood and sandstone by a member of the Saxonia mountain club survive on the southern rock, installed when the summit was opened up in 1885.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 94,376 contributors worldwide.