Highlights:

• Dramatic sandstone mountain range

• Bastei bridge/rock formations; Konigstein castle

• Visiting the vista captured by the Romantic artists

• Elb River and the historic riverside towns

Brief:

⏱ Duration: 5 - 9 days
🗺 Distance: 75 - 116 km (full route=116km)
⛰ Difficulty: Moderate
🗓 Best Time: April - October
🛏 Accomm: Hotels/Inns

Malerweg Overview

East of Dresden, right up to (and across) the Czech Republic border, there’s a unique landscape wonderland referred to as Saxon Switzerland. It’s home to the Elbe River and the surrounding Elbe Sandstone Mountains.

During art’s Romanticism era of the 18th and 19th centuries, European painters such as Caspar David Friedrich were drawn to the natural beauty and drama of the Elbe valley and its bordering rocky mountainscape. The Malerweg (Painters’ Way, in English) is a 116 km walking trail that strings together some of the sites in Saxon Switzerland most favoured by those dreamy artists.

The Elbe Sandstone Mountains have their origin in an extensive 600m thick sandstone slab formed at the bottom of the sea. Over millions of years, this sandstone region has been raised from the sea and then dramatically sculpted by the forces of nature, resulting in a vast area of tabletop mountains, gorges, bluffs, cliff walls and strangely shaped rock formations.

As admirers have been visiting since the Romantic era, paths, stairs, bridges and ladders have been constructed over centuries to provide access to the most stunning areas and the most spectacular viewpoints. As you climb a ladder through a narrow crevice or cross a bridge that links several stone outcrops, it feels like you’ve stepped into a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.  

The official start of the Malerweg is the village of Liebethal, just out of Pirna and a short train ride from Dresden. The circular route stays on the northern side of the Elbe River until it reaches the village of Schmilka, right on the Czech Republic border. It then moves to the south side of the river and remains on that side all the way back to Pirna.

While on the northern side of the Elbe, the Malerweg passes through the Saxon Switzerland National Park, the only non-alpine rock National Park in Germany. The main portion of the National Park lies east of Bad Schandau to the Czech border.

Many walkers opt to undertake a portion of the Malerweg. This is made very simple by the ferries that ply the Elbe River and the train that runs beside the river. Generally, walkers seeking a shorter version of the Malerweg will focus on the area west of Bad Schandau.

Assistance and further information:

• For assistance in walking all or part of the Malerweg, click the button below.

• For a WTA Blog description of undertaking the Malerweg, click the button below.

• For information on other walks in Germany, click the button below.