Spitzhaus Castle

The original core building, a two-story, almost square structure measuring approximately 9.5 x 9.5 meters with five arched windows facing the valley and a distinctive spire, is still recognizable today in the center of the building. However, the former two-armed outdoor staircase to the upper floor on the northern access side has long since disappeared. On top, it has a curved tent roof with an octagonal roof lantern with a copper spire.

In 1901, two-story building wings were added on both sides of the core building, parallel to the slope edge. These wings were also equipped with arched windows and received bay windows with curved hoods on the building corners facing the slope. This renovation was carried out "in the spirit of the original era."

The following year saw the construction of the large, angular veranda on the valley side, which stylistically was solely dedicated to functionality, without regard for historical substance. The executing company was the construction company of Adolf Neumann. Originally made of wood, it was later solidly rebuilt.

In 1922, ancillary buildings were added to the building on the mountain side, which impaired the effect of the baroque outdoor staircase. Further additions on the north side followed in 1928, as a result of which the outdoor staircase was demolished. From the same year is the sandstone relief panel at the entrance with a concrete block frame, depicting the historic Spitzhaus, as well as the initials AF and the years 1622 and 1928.

On the valley side, a large substructure was built in 1924 in the vineyard below the building, on the southwest corner, creating a terrace separate from the rest of the building.

During the renovation and alterations in 1997, a certain symmetrization of the valley view was carried out.

The entire area from Hoflößnitz via the Spitzhaus staircase to the Bismarck Tower and the Spitzhaus, located 140 meters to the east, is under monument protection as a monument ensemble (ensemble protection). Furthermore, the entire open and vineyard area, including the vineyards Goldener Wagen and Spitzhaus, located in the Historic Vineyard Landscape Radebeul conservation area, is considered a work of landscape and garden design.

At the site of an electoral manor house located on a mountain spur above Hoflößnitz in the early 17th century, Elector Johann Georg I is said to have built a small, almost square vineyard house in the Late Renaissance (Mannerism) style in 1622. Due to its location on the mountain spur, the building subsequently received the name Hohes Haus or Hochhaus.

The vineyard estate passed to Colonel Bose, who managed the vineyard until 1657. In 1668, the Dresden merchant Paul Friedrich Landsberger acquired the estate (Landsbergischer Weinberg). Around 1672, he had the building fitted with a high, so-called Italian tent roof, which, due to its similarity to the roof of Moritzburg Castle Chapel, is attributed to the master builder Wolf Caspar von Klengel and earned the building the name Spitziges Haus (Pointed House). Landsberger's heirs took over the estate in 1688.

Further owners in 1699 were Baron von Rechenberg, then the von Wolframsdorf family, after whom the associated vineyard was long called Wolframsdorfischer Weinberg, as shown on Hans August Nienborg's map from 1714. The chamberlain Georg von Wolframsdorf gifted the building on July 24, 1706, to the General of the Cavalry and Governor of the fortresses Königstein and Sonnenstein, Jacob Heinrich von Flemming, who in turn gifted it the following year to the Countess of Cosel, whom he admired. She passed it on in 1710 to her patron, Elector August the Strong. At that time, the building is said to have been somewhat dilapidated, as old chronicles report.

August the Strong planned to incorporate the building on the electoral Hochhäuser Vorwerk (from Hochhaus), which was used militarily in times of war due to its good strategic location, as another pleasure palace in addition to Hoflößnitz Castle, where he hosted his festive gatherings; but it was only under his son, Elector August III, that the building was redesigned in the Baroque style in 1749 according to plans by Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann. During this renovation, it also received a new copper spire instead of the previous tin one, as well as two fireplaces inside, and the two-winged outdoor staircase was added to access the originally painted ballroom on the upper floor.

Pöppelmann also conceived the idea of a 365-step annual staircase from Hoflößnitz Castle to the Spitzhaus, including twelve platforms. In fact, 390 steps were realized, making it the largest Baroque staircase in Saxony. It overcomes a height of 76 m over a length of 220 m. Thus, the Hohes Haus became an easily accessible guesthouse for the Saxon electors, which was gladly visited for its unique view. In addition to the ballroom decorated with paintings, there were private chambers in the tower floor. The guestbook, preserved in the Saxon State Archives, lists names such as Emperor Joseph II, King Charles X of France, and King Otto I of Greece. Wilhelm I of Prussia, then still Crown Prince and later German Emperor, also stayed there.

From 1835 until his appointment as Bergvoigt (mountain bailiff) at Hoflößnitz in 1863, Johann Gottlob Mehlig worked as a court vintner at the Hohes Haus. He authored a five-volume diary chronicle about "Natural and World Events," which is now preserved as a rarity in the Radebeul City Archives and is one of the important sources for regional history and the weather conditions of the Lößnitz wine-growing region.

After the official confirmation of the phylloxera catastrophe in Oberlößnitz in 1887, the era of viticulture was temporarily over, and the royal cultivation areas were abandoned. The Saxon court auctioned off the tower-like Spitzhaus into private hands in 1888 or 1889. The Striesen merchant Friedrich Herrmann Hennicke acquired it in 1889 or 1898 and received a liquor license a year later. In 1901/1902, he had the two wings with the corner bay windows added by the Dresden master builder Richard Beyer, which gave the house its future characteristic appearance and expanded the capacity of the now popular excursion restaurant. Shortly thereafter, the glazed veranda followed. Numerous other alterations and extensions followed in the 1920s; in 1928, the baroque outdoor staircase on the north side disappeared.

From 1960, the house was used as a holiday home by the state-owned Feinstrumpfwerke Oberlungwitz, which were later merged into the Esda hosiery combine in Thalheim. Restaurant operations were severely restricted during this time. Part of the verandas was converted into rooms.

After the political change in 1990, it became a private restaurant again and, after closing in 1995, passed into the ownership of the city of Radebeul. In 1996, the Andreas family of restaurateurs acquired the well-known excursion restaurant through a hereditary building right contract and reopened it in 1997 after renovation and refurbishment.