While it is still warm outside, we decided to spend some time outside and visit Festung Königstein (Königstein Fortress). We took the S-Bahn from Dresden and in forty minutes found ourselves in Königstein town. There is no public transport from the train station to the fortress so we walked through the forest and reached the destination in about an hour (our three-year-old son is not a fast walker)
Fortress was biult by Chech king to control trade route by Elba river. Lately it was passed to Margraviate of Meißen, part of current Saxony. And served as a fortress to Saxon ruller in several wars. It was so well built and protected that has never conqured. Diring the First and Second World Wars it was a war camp to imprison enemies. After Soviet ocupation it turned into a huge museum.
Now you don’t need too much effort to go inside. You can reach the top ow the fortress walls in a couple of minutes using the elevator. It is a marvelous view from the top.
On their website, you can find audioguide available in several languages, including Russian. Across the fortress, there are a lot of places with numbers wich you can enter on audioguide and listen to the history behind the scenes. Inside the fortress, there is a playground where you can build your fortress, cafe, and toiletes.
It turned out that you can use the tourist bus to reach the square near the train station. So for ten euros, we rode back.
Overall I am very satisfied with this place. They are also holding different festivals with reconstruction of medieval battles. So I think the next time we will visit one of such performances