Looking at the fortress Koenigstein yesterday from the distance, we are back now, standing directly under the sandstone cliffs, ready to attack.... Wondering up the hill and see the fortress on top of the cliffs is very impressive, believe me.... There is a bus service and a modern elevator today, but this is the classical way, the "enemies´way".. The sandstone cliffs are 40- 50 meters in high (120 - 150 ft) and are crowned by a surrounding wall with several watchtowers and canons. One of the towers is shown here. The surrounding way is about 1,8 kilometers long, the plateau is ca 600 x 400 meters in diameter. A little history: Medevial times ended with the upcoming of modern arms like guns and canons. A castle was not longer a safe place, so what should they do with all this places? Most of the castles became ruins, some of them were changed into big and luxurious chateaus, and some castles were new constructed as fortresses with own canon batteries, and the King`s Stone is such a place. The monastery years: The saxonian earl Georg der Baertige ("George the Bearded") tried to found an catholic monastery on top of the table mount in 1516. This was not a good idea; Germany was divided in catholics and protestants in these days and Saxonia became protestantic. The monastery of the catholic coelestin monk order existed only for 10 years. The Fortress Age: It was the saxonian prince - elector August of Saxonia and later his son Christian I. who gave the order to construct a mighty and powerful fortress here, and in 1589 the construction began and lasted till 1597. More then 500 construction workers planned the top of the mount, filled the clefts with brickstone walls and dug a new main entrance. Till this time the fortess got several upgrades of the newest military technologies till the begin of the 20st century (to be continued...) Dear friends, lets say "thank You" for your interest of my yesterdays pic. I was very happy about. Please feel free to look in and send a commnet, good or ....hm...not so good, everyone is wellcome. Enjoy. Pic was taken in October 2008 with my Coolpix. billcody, Berlin