Teufelsturm

The Teufelsturm is a prominent rock tower and climbing rock formed of Elbe Sandstone, about forty metres high in Saxon Switzerland in East Germany. It is located east of the River Elbe on the upper edge of the valley between Schmilka and Bad Schandau in the Schrammsteinen. The Teufelsturm is also referred to as the "Symbol of Saxon Climbing".
The oldest name for the peak is probably Butterweck or Butterweckfels, because the summit bears a certain resemblance to a bread roll when seen from a distance, such as from the other bank of the Elbe. The name Teufelsturm was already being used by Wilhelm Leberecht Götzinger in his descriptions of Saxon Switzerland, where he mentioned it as a sundial by the farmers on the plateaux around Schöna and Reinhardtsdorf. The shadow thrown by the Teufelsturm on the rock face behind it - when seen from the direction of Reinhardtsdorf-Schöna - disappears around midday exactly behind the rock tower, which is therefore also called the Mittagstein or Mittagfels . Another name is Campanile, probably derived from similarly named summits in the Dolomites and the Brenta, so-named because of their smooth rock faces and generally rectangular structure of the tower. The name most used today, Teufelsturm probably arose due to the difficulty of climbing the hill.

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