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Table mountains and rocks – legends

Lilienstein

Legend

The Lilienstein is the only table mountain in Saxon Switzerland on the right bank of the Elbe, and it lies directly opposite the Festung Königstein. Several legends surround it – of gold hidden inside the mountain and of a mysterious bride.

Legend The gold in the mountain

The Lilienstein is said to have been inhabited long ago, and behind a cellar door that is only rarely seen, a whole brewing pan full of ducats is said to lie. A poor woman from Waltersdorf once found the door open, set her child on a golden table and scooped gold into her apron – but when she turned round, the door had vanished. Exactly one year later she found it again, and her child was playing there unharmed with golden apples and pears.

Legend

A second Lilienstein legend tells that the hoard of ducats can only be raised by sacrificing a pure maiden. So a gang of treasure hunters took along a not overly bright maid from Waltersdorf, and everyone had to keep strict silence. At midnight a beast with a fiery maw appeared, with the key lying on its tongue – the maid was to take it. Then she cried out “Oh Lordy!”, and at that very moment the treasure hunters were flung to all four corners of the earth: in the morning one was found in Ebenheit, one in Königstein and one in Waltersdorf – unhurt, but without any gold.

Legend The bride on the Lilienstein

A young weaver from Schandau, Conrad Zeisig, met a beautiful woman at the Lilienstein with a golden chain in her hair. She asked him to bring her the host from his confession – he must only not take fright. When he came back, a half-animal creature stood before him, cursed because of a grave sin. In his terror he dropped the bread, the earth opened up and swallowed the creature in flames; the weaver is said never to have been the same again.

Winterberg

Legend The stag and the Elector

In 1558 Elector August was hunting in the Ottendorf heath. On the Kleiner Winterberg he pursued a mighty stag on foot onto a narrow rock above the abyss. The animal was trapped and wanted to get back – exactly where the Elector was standing. With the words “Either I hit you, or you will be the death of me”, he fired; the stag reared up and plunged backwards into the depths. In gratitude his son Christian had a memorial plaque bearing the year 1558 put up and a little hunting lodge built at the top with the antlers on its roof; today’s octagonal pavilion dates from 1818.

Legend The seven beeches

Seven magnificent beech trees once stood on the Großer Winterberg. The common folk said that as soon as these trees died, the House of Wettin would lose the crown and a foreign ruler would govern Saxony – some even believed that the Turks would then invade the land.

Zirkelstein und Kaiserkrone

Legend Rübezahl’s teeth

The mountain spirit Rübezahl is said to have come over from the Giant Mountains once and run headfirst into a rock – which split into the Großer and the Kleiner Zschirnstein. In the process Rübezahl lost two teeth: his eye tooth is the Zirkelstein, his molar the Kaiserkrone. In the Zahngrund (Tooth Valley) near Schandau he is said to have cooled his aching jaw, and the reddish veins in the rock supposedly come from his blood. To be honest, though: Rübezahl really belongs in the Giant Mountains. As early as 1894 the legend collector Alfred Meiche wrote that a cobbler from Lohmen had tried to “smuggle” him into Saxon Switzerland in 1842 – and that the locals had rejected the hoax. It is a lovely story all the same.

Legend The plague and the Lobetänze

Below the Zirkelstein and the Kaiserkrone lies Reinhardtsdorf. Legend has it that the village was once called Fichtendorf – a name still recalled by the inn “Zu den drei Fichten” (The Three Spruces). Then the plague came and wiped it out entirely; Stolzenhain on the Fuchsbach near Cunnersdorf also perished at that time. When the dying was finally over, people in the upper part of Saxon Switzerland held a festival of thanksgiving, and that is said to be the origin of the old “Lobetänze” (dances of praise).

Pfaffenstein

Legend The Barbarine

On the Pfaffenstein, formerly also called the Jungfernstein, stands the slender rock needle known as the Barbarine. The legend tells of a girl from Pfaffendorf who preferred picking bilberries on Sundays to going to church. Her angry mother cursed her – and the girl was turned to stone on the spot. In the old days the story was meant as a warning to disobedient children. The rock needle owes its name to the girl, who is said to have been called Barbara.

Großer Zschirnstein

Legend The midday ghost

You should not visit the Großer Zschirnstein at the midday hour when the sun is shining – for then a midday ghost walks abroad there. Two young hikers heard the noon bell, and at once there was howling in the forest, branches crashed and birds shrieked; only when the clock struck one did all fall quiet again. And it was against this very mountain, after all, that Rübezahl is said to have once bumped his head.

Bärensteine

Legend The Jungfernsprung

When the Swedish general Banér took Pirna in 1639 and his soldiers were plundering, a young woman is said to have fled from them onto the Bärenstein near Thürmsdorf. In her desperation she leapt into the abyss. In remembrance a cross was carved into the rock, and ever since, the spot has been called the Jungfernsprung (Maiden’s Leap).

Prebischtor

Legend Prebisch the hermit

On the Bohemian side they tell how a hermit named Prebisch once lived beneath a great rock overhang, wanting nothing to do with the world. In a vision he saw the rock as a mighty gateway towards which crowds of people were streaming, and he prayed to God that he would never have to witness it. One day a huge block broke loose and killed him – and so the arch was formed that he was never to see.

Tyssaer Wände

Legend The treasure and the rock goblins

In Tisá they tell of a French nobleman who hid a treasure in the Tyssa Walls and never found the spot again – he wandered about for so long that he lost his mind. Rock goblins are said to guard the treasure and lead treasure seekers astray. Another legend speaks of dwarfs who built an underground city full of treasure beneath the rocks – they rewarded the good-hearted, but not the greedy.

Matching hikes

• Bastei
• Über Thürmsdorf zu den Bärensteinen
• Malerweg-Tipp der Familie Jäger: Weißig – Thürmsdorf

As of: 09/2026

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