Häntzschelstiege

The staircase is located in the Ostrava district and therefore belongs to Bad Schandau. It leads from the foot of the Bloßstock in the Affensteine to the summit of the Langer Horn, north of the Großer Winterberg. The Häntzschelstiege overcomes a difference in altitude of about 160 metres over a length of 700 m. After the renovation in the late 1990s, the staircase has 516 steps. It consists of two parts, between the lower and upper parts, the path is crossed by the upper Affenstein promenade. The two parts can therefore also be walked independently of each other.

The via ferrata was created in the 1960s by Rudolf Häntzschel from Sebnitz, to whom the staircase also owes its name. He built the trail on his own initiative, without official permission and largely single-handedly with materials he had partly obtained from scrap yards. It took him about ten years. In order to ensure its preservation from the authorities, Häntzschel first named the staircase Herta-Lindner-Steig, after the resistance fighter Herta Lindner, who was executed in 1943. However, the name did not take hold permanently. The staircase quickly became a popular visit. This led to the first renovation work in 1986 with the installation of additional wooden steps at the entrance, as the high frequency had led to considerable erosion damage there. After the steps and iron ropes gradually fell into disrepair over the years, the national park administration planned to close the stairs in 1998. Hiking clubs, the Saxon Mountaineering Association and the Initiative for Saxon Switzerland demonstrated massively against the protest. As a result, the lower part was renovated first, and in 2002 also the upper part.

Wikipedia