Back Roads Germany (Dk Eyewitness Travel Back Roads)

117

Above Pretty pastel-hued houses,

Augustusburg village Center left Sculptures

on the walls of Dom St. Marien, Zwickau

Below Schloss Augustburg, on its wooded

perch above the town

EAT AND DRINK IN

ERZGEBIRGE

Kreuzgewölbe moderate

Fine, modern German cuisine meets

classy country style beneath the vaults

of Hotel Büttner, or on a lovely terrace

in summer. The two-course menus

here are good value.

Markt 3, 08289 Schneeberg; 03772

35 30; closed Mon & Tue

Ratskeller moderate

With its paneled dining room and

dishes such as Erzgebirge trout pan-

fried in butter, this local institution is

a bastion of traditional dining.

Obermarkt 16, 09599 Freiberg;

03731 221 51

5 Freiberg

Historic and postcard-pretty, old

Freiberg is a delight. Having emerged

from World War II unscathed, the

main square, Obermarkt, crowded by

narrow 17th-century merchants’

houses, is a slice of bygone Germany.

The town’s name literally means

“Free Mountain,” as the wealth from

silver-mining was all tax free. Silver

also funded Freiberg’s architectural

treasure, the late-Gothic Dom St.

Marien (tours daily), which has a

sculpture of a miner ges tur ing up to

its Tulip Pulpit (1505). A town and

mining museum, Stadt-und

Bergbaumuseum (closed Mon), stands

opposite the cathedral.

ª Turn right from Schlossplatz

and then right again on to Leipziger

Strasse to find the B101 to Nossen

then Meissen. Park beside the river

at Zentrum.

DRIVE 11: On the Trail of the Sun King

3 Greifensteine
Around 300 million years ago,
magma bubbling up through fissures
in the Earth’s crust wore away the
surround ing sand stone to leave these
strange granite outcrops, which
appear unex pectedly in a pine forest
like for tifications of a fantastic castle.
Walk around their bases before
ascending a walkway for a pano ramic
view. Long mined as a quarry by
locals, the rocks are put to better
use today as a natural amphitheater
for musicals and opera in summer
(www.greifensteine.com).

ª Back in Ehrenfriedersdorf, turn
left at the T-junction and then right
toward Dreibach and Scharfenstein
to Zschopau. Drive through the town
center to Waldkirchen and turn left to
Augustusburg; park below the Schloss.

4 Schloss Augustusburg

Several sights in one courtyard castle

make this 16th-century royal hunting

lodge (open daily) a family favorite.

Visitors can buy a combination ticket

to access a trio of museums: former

banqueting chambers whose displays

on hunting are upstaged by murals

of gamboling hares; displays of

vintage motorbikes; and the fairy-

tale carriages of Saxony’s rulers in the

old stables. Also of interest are the

historic rooms of the Lindenhaus

(tours daily) and a dungeon full of

grisly torture instruments. Displays

of falconry staged by the drawbridge

offer a glimpse of the castle’s past

(Easter–Oct: closed Mon).

ª Continue north, following signs to

Flöha and join the B180 then the B173

to Freiburg. Follow signs to Zentrum

and park on Schlossplatz.

samples of which are on display in an
exhibition room above. Drive back to
the B101, go beneath the viaduct,
and then turn left at the roundabout.
Around a tight bend, turn right into
the Altstadt and park at the Markt.
In Annaberg-Buchholz’s old town,
grand townhouses sug gest a place
of some importance. The richest
silver seams in the area funded both
its main square and St. Annenkirche,
whose rough exte rior belies a beau-

tiful inte rior. Notoriously super-
stitious, miners hoped their lavish
outlay would find favor with
St. Anne, the profession’s patron
saint. Prayers were said just before a
shift in a contem porary shaft, now
accessed via a mining museum (open
daily) opposite the church door.
ª Continue north on the B101
and turn left on to the B95 toward
Chemnitz. Turn left in central
Ehrenfriedersdorf toward
Greifensteine for the entrance.