The rear Saxon Switzerland has always been a hunting ground for the lords of Hohnstein and the Saxon electors. Elector Augustus of Saxony (1526–1586) used the Großer Zschand and the areas to the west around the Kleiner and Großer Winterberg as a hunting ground. The equipment required for hunting (including snares, trapping irons, gillnets, boar feathers, wolf spears, transport boxes, rabbit yarn, traps and game cloths, nets, cages) were probably kept in a small wooden house on Kleiner Winterberg as early as the 16th century. From 1670, the forester's lodge in Lichtenhain also served as a repository.

In order to reduce the transport costs for the electoral hunts, the first wooden arsenal was built under Elector August the Strong in 1728 at the current location in Großer Zschand. The year "1642" attached to today's house was not attached until the 19th century.[1] The house also served as the dwelling place of a track and equipment boy. His tasks also included tracking game when hunting and maintaining and laying out new paths in the hunting ground. The first snack bar was opened in the armory in 1786.[2]

The dilapidated wooden armory was replaced in 1820 by a massive stone building and some outbuildings. The new armory increasingly served as temporary accommodation for forest workers, carters and raftsmen and quickly reached its capacity limits. In 1871, a further floor was therefore added. This corresponds to the situation that still exists today. Around 1905, the royal forest administration had another hunting lodge built in the vicinity of the armory, which was later used as a forest lodge.

Already in the early phase of the tourist development of Saxon Switzerland at the beginning of the 19th century, the first "Swiss travelers" reached the armory. As early as 1812, Götzinger described the arsenal as a place ...where travelers can find a friendly welcome, refreshing Swiss fare and also a guide....[3] Tourist frequency continued to increase in the following decades and was further promoted by the construction of the Kirnitzschtalstraße (1872-74) and the opening of the Kirnitzschtalbahn (1898). In 1908, the then forest warden in the armory received official permission to run his official apartment as a bar.

In 1938 the building stock was expanded to include a customs house. after a border and customs post already existed at the armory during the First World War. After 1945, the customs house was used as barracks for the border police. Between autumn 1948 and autumn 1949, the border police also used the actual armory as an office, after which it was used again as a restaurant and company holiday home. The restaurant had to be closed in 1974 for reasons of hygiene and building regulations. Bar and catering took place in a low-rise building built next to the armory as a self-service restaurant, and consumption took place in a beer garden-like open-air facility under covered tables.

In addition to the customs house from 1938, two extension buildings were built, all three houses served as holiday homes for employees of the Ministry for State Security. With the fall of the Wall and German unity, the catering business came to a standstill. The use of the holiday home by the former State Security ended in 1996. The Free State of Saxony tried to put the site out to tender and in May 2000 the dilapidated area was sold. The content of the contract included the renovation of the armory and the demolition of the GDR buildings. The buildings of the holiday home have now been completely demolished and replaced by a meadow.

Since autumn 2012, the pond below the arsenal has existed again, which historically has existed since at least the 15th century, but was converted into a meadow before the First World War. In the former district forester's office immediately north of the armory, the national park administration operates a publicly accessible information point that provides information about the historical use of hunting in the region.

Since 2018, the armory has been one of the filming locations for the series Der Ranger - Paradies Heimat. The former hunting lodge to the east of the armory served as a fictitious ranger station.
Source: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeughaus_(S%C3%A4chsische_Schweiz)

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Christoph Möller-Guth

September 9, 2023

The armory is definitely worth a visit, Wednesday to Sunday

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Location: Sebnitz, Saxon Switzerland, Saxon Switzerland-East Ore Mountains, Saxony, Germany

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