Whilst driving around Saxon Switzerland, we saw this lonely bench on the roadside. There was no one in sight, no vehicles and no activity whatsoever – just a peaceful autumn landscape with Lilienstein and a beautiful sunset in the background.
Did you ever wonder about the name ”Saxon Switzerland”? I always assumed this name was derived from the same region of Sächsische Schweiz – Saxon Switzerland, or commonly “Swiss Saxony”. It is likely that this name was chosen because of the landscape similarities to Switzerland or even because of geological reasons that this area is compared.
It was funny to discover that the name “Sächsische Schweiz” comes from 17th Century. In 1766, two Swiss artists Adrian Zingg and Anton Graff joined Dresden Academy of Arts. These two artists wrote many letters comparing landscape – back then named Meissen Highlands – to their homeland. The letters and the chosen name became popular because of a publication by Wilhelm Lebrecht Götzinger. The name gained broad audience and soon enough the entire area was recognized this way.
