Winter hiking - Hiking in the Dippoldiswald Heath

Starting point: Heidestraße parking lot at the Dippoldhütte. From the Dippoldhütte, follow Heidestraße in a northerly direction until you reach the Stone Table . Saxon electors who hunted on the heath used to stop here. Further north, the Sternweg, which crosses the Marktsteig, turns left to Malterweg, where you reach the Stone Knife. Its creation is said to be connected to the murder of a priest in 1502, while other interpretations point to the accident of a Rabenau butcher who fell into his knife on the icy path or who is said to have stabbed a woman at this point. Just a few meters away is the wolf column . It commemorates the last wolf on the heath, which was killed during a hunt in 1802. At the wolf column, the path continues southwards as a forest path, crossing the Hohe Straße, from here as a slab path past the Tatar grave. Dippoldiswald potters laid out the sandstone slab path to make it safer to transport their goods to the market in Dresden with wheelbarrows. The Tartar grave was created during the Seven Years' War when Prussians and Austrians passed through and besieged the town. A first lieutenant of the Uhlan troop who was shot dead in a battle in Reichstädt was buried here by his Uhlans according to Tatar custom. After reaching Rabenauer Straße, the path leads out of town, uphill to the crossroads at the Landhaus Heidehof country hotel, near which the König-Johann-Turm is located. Built in 1885, this tower now serves as a lookout tower with views of Dippoldiswalde, Malter, Paulsdorf and Seifersdorf as far as the Eastern Ore Mountains. It was built in honor of the then Saxon King Johann and named after him. The 20 m high tower stands on an octagonal base. To get to the viewing platform, ask for the key at the Landhotel. Heading north on the Heidestraße, you reach the Dippoldhütte again.