Deutsch · English · Français · Čeština · Nederlands · Polski · Italiano
Where the painters worked
Almost every stage of the Malerweg has its own picture. On the right bank of the Elbe: the Uttewalder Grund (Stage 1) – Caspar David Friedrich drew the rock gate around 1801, J. C. Dahl painted the valley in 1819, and Ludwig Richter engraved the “Ottowalder Felsenthor” in 1820. The Bastei and Neurathen (Stage 2) – Friedrich’s “Rocky Landscape in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains” of 1822/23 and Christian Gottlob Hammer’s “View from the Bastei” of around 1825. The Amselgrund (Stage 2) – Friedrich’s “Rocks beside a Forest Path” of around 1810. Hohnstein (Stage 2/3) – Friedrich drew the gate in July 1800, and Adrian Zingg drew the view of the castle through a rock arch. The Brand viewpoint (Stage 3) – Ludwig Richter drew it in 1820.
From the Kuhstall to the Kaiserkrone
The Kuhstall (Stage 4) – Adrian Zingg drew it in 1786, and the sheet is now in the Albertina in Vienna; Friedrich drew it around 1818 on a hike with Carl Gustav Carus. The Großer Winterberg (Stage 5) – Zingg’s “View from the Großer Winterberg”. The Gamrig near Rathen – Friedrich sketched it on 13 May 1808, and it later appears in the middle ground of the “Wanderer above the Sea of Fog”. The Kaiserkrone, Wolfsberg and Zirkelstein near Krippen (Stage 6) – here on 3 June 1813 Friedrich drew the rock on which his “Wanderer above the Sea of Fog” stands. In the village church of Reinhardtsdorf, pictures from 1681 to 1711 show rocks of the area – they are regarded as the oldest artistic depictions of Saxon Switzerland.
From Königstein to Pirna
The Festung Königstein (Stage 7) – Bernardo Bellotto, known as Canaletto, painted five large views of the fortress between 1756 and 1758. The Thiele viewpoint near Thürmsdorf (Stage 7) – from here Johann Alexander Thiele painted his “Prospect of the Festung Königstein”; the view was cleared again in 2015/2016. Naundorf (Stage 8) – the Impressionist Robert Sterl lived and painted in the Robert-Sterl-Haus from 1919 to 1932. Pirna (the end of Stage 8) – Canaletto painted the town in eleven large views between 1753 and 1755, including the market square; a copy hangs in the Canalettohaus on the market square.
As of: 10/2026
Keep asking TOURsten
TOURsten is happy to tell you more, find the right hike and plan your holiday day with you – free of charge and in seven languages.
Ask TOURsten