Ruins - Oybin Castle and Monastery

Oybin, Germany, Germany

---

Oybin Castle and Monastery ruins crown a 514-meter sandstone peak in the Zittau Mountains near Oybin, Saxony, Germany, originating as a 13th-century Slavic stronghold and robber baron outpost destroyed by Zittau in 1291 then rebuilt.

Emperor Charles IV claimed it in 1346, converting the site into an imperial residence with a Gothic church and Celestine monastery founded in 1366 by architect Peter Parler, boasting advanced features like underfloor heating and water pipes to Zittau.

Dissolved during the Reformation in 1556, it suffered lightning-induced fires in 1577, a massive 1681 rockfall burying towers, and stone quarrying, until Romantic painters like Caspar David Friedrich revived its fame in the 19th century, with modern stabilizations since 1829 and post-1990 restorations preserving the evocative castle walls, chapel, and imperial house.