Holy Stairs (Saxon Switzerland)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Holy Stairs (2009)

The Heilige Stiege is a climbing facility in Saxon Switzerland . It leads from the Heringsgrund in the Schmilka area to the Reitsteig on the Winterberg massif . The staircase runs in the Ostrau district and thus belongs to Bad Schandau .

history

In 1698 a "stone staircase" was mentioned in Heringsgrund. Up until the 19th century , however, there are no cartographically traceable routes at the current location. The first naming of a Holy Staircase at Schmilka was not made until 1812 by Wilhelm Leberecht Götzinger , who, however, attached the name to the staircase in the Breite Kluft. Today's Holy Staircase probably did not exist in Götzinger's time. A copper engraving by Ludwig Richter titled “Holy Stairs at Schmilka” shows none of the steps comparable to today's Holy Stairs. The row of steps most closely corresponds to today's Rotkehlchenstiege , which Götzinger described as “well developed” as early as 1804. Other earlier ascents from Schmilka to the Reitsteig were presumably at the site of today's Wurzelweg and Lehnsteig. The first steps and ladders at the current location were probably built in the first half of the 19th century by forest workers or hunters.

The claim, often cited in travel literature, that the staircase was a way for the churchgoers from Schmilka to the Lichtenhain church is not proven and implausible. Schmilka was assigned to the church in Bad Schandau.

Initially, the staircase was made of wood; an author describes it around 1835 as a "poor staircase". From the 1950s onwards, the stairs were maintained by mountaineers from Dresden in their spare time, until the today's steel ladders and steps were built in 1969 by the VEB Sächsischer Brücken- und Stahlhochbau Dresden. The staircase overcomes a height difference of 190 meters with 903 steps and is therefore the climbing system in Saxon Switzerland with the most steps. As a marked and well-secured hiking trail , it does not reach the difficulty of an unsecured via ferrata such as the neighboring Starke Stiege or Rübezahlstiege .

literature

  • Between Sebnitz, Hinterhermsdorf and the Zschirnsteinen (= values ​​of the German homeland . Volume 2). 1st edition. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1959, p. 114.
  • Axel Mothes: The journey is the goal - a journey over 50 piers in Saxon Switzerland. Volume 1, p. 104. Stiegenbuchverlag. Hall 2005.
  • Peter Rölke, Manfred Schober : Stairs in the Schmilka area or the riddle around the Holy Staircase. In: Peter Rölke (Ed.): Stiegen-Wanderführer Sächsische Schweiz. Berg- & Naturverlag Rölke, Dresden 2012, ISBN 978-3-934514-27-0

Web links

Commons : Holy Stairs  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Peter Rölke, Manfred Schober: stairs in the Schmilka area or the riddle around the holy stairs. In: Peter Rölke (Ed.): Stiegen-Wanderführer Sächsische Schweiz. Berg- & Naturverlag Rölke, Dresden 2012, ISBN 978-3-934514-27-0 , p. 127 ff.
  2. ^ Alfred Meiche: Historisch-Topographische Beschreibung der Amtshauptmannschaft Pirna , Dresden 1927, Königstein, p. 303 (accessed on February 6, 2016; PDF; 32.1 MB).
  3. ↑ Peter Rölke (Ed.): Stiegen-Wanderführer Sächsische Schweiz. Berg- & Naturverlag Rölke, Dresden 2012, ISBN 978-3-934514-27-0 , p. 126

Coordinates: 50 ° 54 ′ 32.4 "  N , 14 ° 14 ′ 15"  E