Barbarine

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The Barbarine at the Pfaffenstein

The Barbarine is the most famous free-standing rock in the German part of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains . The 42.7 m high rock needle is considered a landmark of Saxon Switzerland . It was first climbed by mountaineers on September 19, 1905 and was declared a natural monument on December 13, 1978 after the rock had been closed to climbing three years earlier.

Location

The Barbarine belongs to the Pfaffenstein massif in the Pfaffendorf district of the city of Königstein .

Mountain sport development

Postcard depicting the first ascent (incorrect date: April 8, 1906)

The attempt of the climber Felix Wendschuh on September 9, 1905 was the first documented attempt at an ascent. In his attempt he pushed under the summit head, or at least to the end of the crack. The story that the landlord of the Pfaffenstein, Keiler, forced him to turn back under threat of a complaint is probably not true. Keiler himself was a mountaineer and should not have had anything against an ascent, especially since the later first climbers also documented the attempt with him in the pub.

On September 19, 1905, the Dresden climber Rudolf Fehrmann and the American Oliver Perry-Smith were the first to conquer the Barbarine. They had already made it to the summit the day before, but were too exhausted to safely climb the last ledge at the summit head. Another route on the valley side was opened on July 8, 1924 by Alfred Hermann.

Lightning strikes in the summit head and progressive erosion made the upper summit heads increasingly unstable, so that as early as 1946 mountaineers filled the recess with concrete. Due to the continued erosion, further work was carried out in 1964, the summit head was reinforced and spanned with steel cables. The torn upper head was protected from further disintegration with a circumferential steel cable. It was not until 1975 that a general ascent ban was issued.

In 1979/80 sandstone hardeners were introduced into the summit heads. The upper head was given a cap made of artificial sandstone and treated with water-repellent agents. The geological natural monument is now only climbed in exceptional cases - mostly by geologists and other scientists to investigate the current state.

The legend of the Barbarine

According to legend, the Barbarine is a petrified virgin, the permanent memorial of a criminal court, according to which it should happen that a mother had her daughter go to church on Sundays, but the daughter had gone to church on the Pfaffstein in the Heydelbeere during church, and when she found her mother there, she cursed the daughter in anger, that she must be turned into a stone on the spot; whereupon such things happen instantly, and therefore this maiden, who has become a stone, stands here forever, and with her stone statue warn all disobedient children. The name Barbarine was derived from the girl's first name. In a variant of this legend, the mother is an evil witch and the girl meets her lover, a hunter, at the Pfaffenstein.

gallery

  • The Barbarine with the Zschirnsteinen in the background

  • Detail of Barbarine's head in winter

  • Display board at the Barbarinenaussicht on Pfaffenstein

  • View of the Barbarine from the east

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Barbarine  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Barbarine  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ralph Keiler: The Pfaffenstein. Berg- & Naturverlag Rölke, Dresden 2004, ISBN 3-934514-15-4 , p. 110 ff.
  2. ↑ Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm : German legends . Munich 1816, p. 229 ( literaturnetz.org [accessed July 17, 2010]).
  3. ↑ Pfaffenstein . In: August Schumann : Complete State, Post and Newspaper Lexicon of Saxony. 8th volume. Schumann, Zwickau 1821, p. 216.
  4. ^ Johann Georg Theodor Grasse : The stone maiden on the Pfaffenstein . In: The legends of the Kingdom of Saxony . Second improved and enlarged edition. G. Schönfeld, 1874, p. 169–170 ( digitized on Wikisource).
  5. ^ Widar Ziehnert : The Jungfernstein near Pfaffendorf . In: Saxony's folk tales: ballads, romances and legends . tape 3 . Rudolph & Dieterici, Annaberg 1839, p. 127-134 ( Google Books [accessed July 17, 2010]).

Coordinates: 50 ° 54 '  N , 14 ° 5'  E