Schomberg Castle

Bad Schandau was founded at the beginning of the 14th century on an alluvial cone of the Kirnitzsch and served in the Middle Ages as a transshipment point for grain, wine, salt, and wood. First mentioned in a document in 1437, the town developed into a flourishing small town in the following centuries thanks to Elbe trade and Elbe shipping. The fortification on the Schlossberg or Schomberg (dialectal form for Schönberg) high above the town probably served as a river and road watchtower to secure the movement of goods on the Elbe and the Hohe Strasse to Lusatia. Traces of fire on the sparsely preserved remains of the rampart, ditch, and cistern indicate destruction during the Hussite Wars of 1419-34. Although the fortification did not survive the centuries, an artificial ruin was created on the old masonry in 1883 as an observation tower by master builder Dachsel and solemnly inaugurated on June 24, 1883, by members of the Mountain Club. The complex is protected as an early historical archaeological monument.