Schwarzenberg

Another day, another mining town. A castle was built in the Twelfth Century to protect a trade route from Pleissnerland to Bohemia, and a village grew up around it. At one point in its history, control of the town passed to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (so that moves it high up my list for places to visit), but we saw no signs of the big guy. The castle was converted to a hunting lodge for the Elector of Saxony when it came into his possession in the 1500s. Today, it houses a museum of local crafts and history.

It became a administrative center for the mines in the area, and in the course of its history had some heavy industry. An impressive church stands next to the castle, the Sankt Georgen Kirche.

We jumped on a bus, being wary of the icy, mountainous roads and the fact we had a rental car in a foreign country, and were treated to mostly pretty and snow covered scenery. On the walk from the bust stop, they had wooden figures of mountain trades on the way to the Altstadt, which is mostly what's in this post. Woodworking was one of the trades that replaced mining, along with lace making, and woodworking on an artisanal scale is still very much a thing here.Read more