Stepping into 18th-century art history, wandering one of the loveliest historic towns in Saxony, and discovering one of the most beautiful churches in Germany are among the best things to do in Pirna.
This small town just beyond the suburbs of Dresden could easily be overlooked – not just because of its much bigger neighbour, but also the sheer number of great places to visit on Dresden’s doorstep.
But even if you have only half a day spare, visiting Pirna is well worth your while. Its late medieval main square, Am Markt, is the subject of a famous painting by Bernardo Bellotto (also known as Canaletto), and it has scarcely changed in the 270 years since it was completed.
Pirna is also one of the main gateways to the gorgeous Saxon Switzerland National Park, the most scenic stretch of the River Elbe, and you can get the train, bus or boat upriver to the main sights from the town.
Pirna is also close to several castles and palaces, and two fascinating museums on its 20th century past, including its role in one of the darkest episodes in German history.
Things To Do In Pirna – What You Need To Know
Pirna is one of the easiest day trips from Dresden, a 22-minute train ride from the city’s main station.
You could see Pirna’s historic centre in half a day, but if you also want to visit the museums and explore the surrounding area, you could easily spend two to three days there.
One of the most useful buses in the region – the 237 to Bastei Bridge – departs from Pirna bus station several times daily. It stops a short walk from the bridge, cutting out the need for the climb up from Rathen.
Main Square and Canaletto View
The main square in Pirna – Am Markt – has changed little since the time Bernardo Bellotto painted it in the mid-18th century. He was court painter to the Elector of Saxony, and also the King of Poland – so was accustomed to painting grand veduti vistas of cities including Dresden and Warsaw. Pirna is his only known series of paintings of a relatively small town.
Bellotto was the nephew and pupil of Venetian painter Antonio Canal, more widely known as Canaletto. His paintings of Venice quickly became famous, and Bellotto often used his name rather than his own. Many people still refer to him as ‘Canaletto’ to this day – including the Pirna town authorities, who organize an annual re-enactment of his painting, The Marketplace at Pirna.
The square looks just as enticing as it did back in the 18th century, with all the major buildings still there. The gabled Canaletto Haus – now painted white – was partly rebuilt in the early Renaissance period, around 1520, and the tourist information centre is located on the ground floor. The imposing Rathaus – Town Hall – was first built in the late 15th century, then got a Renaissance overhaul in the 1550s.
The vantage point for Bellotto’s painting was somewhere above the Canaletto Café on the southwest corner of the square. The café does excellent coffee and cake, and is a great place to warm up in winter as I did.
If you plan to see the painting, check out my guide to visiting Dresden’s Old Masters Gallery. It can be found in this superb gallery in the Zwinger Palace, along with several other famous works by Bellotto.
There are also several fine townhouses around the square, some with lovely painted signs above the doorways like the White Swan (pictured).
The Market Ship sculpture and fountain on the other side of the square is by Jan Witte-Kropius.
Marienkirche (Stadtkirche St Marien)
The town’s parish church – just behind the main square at the foot of the Castle Hill – is one of the most beautiful churches in Germany. For church aficionados, it’s worth going out of your way to visit Pirna to see it.
The Marienkirche was built between 1502 and 1546, the late Gothic hall church replacing an earlier building from the 13th century. There are also a few later Renaissance flourishes, including the figures on the base of the font and the main altarpiece, which is from around 1612.
The highlight of the church is the exquisite ceiling vault, one of the most detailed I’ve seen in this part of Europe. Magnificent.
Sonnenstein Castle
Sonnenstein Castle’s history goes back around a thousand years, when it was a Slavic fortress guarding this crossing point of the River Elbe. The reason it’s perhaps not one of the most renowned castles near Dresden is that much of it was destroyed in 1758 by the Habsburg Imperial Army. Since then some of the ramparts have been restored, but much of the site has been used as a mental hospital.
That said, I recommend the short walk up the hill to the Schloss for the superb view of Pirna’s old town, and the River Elbe beyond. One of the buildings also houses the Pirna-Sonnenstein Memorial, which I describe later in the article.
Grosssedlitz Baroque Garden
You could be forgiven for thinking that Elector Augustus the Strong – the man who turned Dresden into the ‘Florence of the Elbe’ – had a bottomless pit of money. He spent an absolute fortune on building the city and acquiring art treasures, but, behind the scenes, the cash was slowly running out. Grosssedlitz was where he finally had to stop splashing the cash. For a while, anyway.
Augustis acquired the Little Palace and adjoining Baroque Garden, intending to turn it into Saxony’s Versailles. A lack of funds soon put paid to that. However, the gardens were remodelled between 1719 and 1732, resulting in one of the most beautiful gardens in Germany.
The original layout of the Garden has been maintained, and the two Orangeries and Baroque statues around the Gardens are stunning. The Garden is at its best in summer, and is open Sundays and public holidays, April to October.
Saxon Switzerland National Park
Pirna is one of the main gateways to the Saxon Switzerland National Park, somewhere all visitors from Dresden pass through on their short journey to the Elbe Sandstone Mountains.
Saxon Switzerland is a wondrous landscape to explore, with distinctive sandstone outcrops and pinnacles around the Elbe River as it winds its way into Germany from northern Bohemia. The similar landscape across the border in the Czech Republic is the Bohemian Switzerland National Park.
The main sights of Saxon Switzerland are easy to reach from Pirna. The most popular, Bastei Bridge, can be reached by the direct 237 bus from Pirna bus station (next to the railway station on the western edge of town). This takes you to high ground just above the Bridge, which is a 600-metre walk away via the Berghotel Bastei.
Otherwise you can earn your hiking stripes by taking the local S-Bahn S1 train to Kurort-Rathen, then catching the ferry across to the village of Rathen and walking up from there.
The second most popular sight in the National Park is the mighty Festung Königstein Fortress, on the hill above the village of the same name. The Saxon Bastille as we now see it was built in three phases between the 16th and 18th centuries, and the full fortress – with a water source cut over 150 metres into the rock – proved impregnable.
Paddle Steamer Tour Along The Elbe
This section of the Elbe is the most scenic along the entire length of the river. Upstream is the Saxon Switzerland National Park, with its breathtaking rock formations like the Bastei as high as 200 metres above river level. And downstream is Dresden, the river lined with palaces and then one of the most famous and beautiful city skylines in Europe.
And seeing all of this on a leisurely boat cruise is a wonderful way to spend a day. This paddle steamer cruise from Dresden to Königstein takes you past the Elbe Castles, Schloss Pillnitz, Pirna and Bastei before turning around at Königstein, giving you time to walk up the hill and visit the Castle.
Boats also run from Pirna along the river – both in the direction of Dresden and east into Saxon Switzerland. Pillnitz and the three Elbe Castles are a just a few miles downstream from Pirna.
Pirna DDR Museum
DDR Museums – exhibitions on life in the former East Germany – used to be a deutschmark a dozen, but in recent years a number have sadly closed, including the one in nearby Dresden.
The DDR Museum in Pirna is regarded as one of the best – this from an old friend who has visited around 15 of them around the country.
When I visited Pirna – in January – it was closed for the winter, which was unfortunate as I’m a big fan of these places myself. It’s closed between November and March. It’s then open on weekends in April, and Tuesdays to Sundays from May to October. Hours vary from 10.00 am to 2.00 pm to 10.00 am to 4.00 pm. Check their website here.
It’s a great place to introduce kids to life under Communism, with artefacts from the usual cult Trabant cars to a giant bust of Lenin outside the main entrance.
Even if you’ve been to the biggest one of its kind – the DDR Museum in Berlin – these smaller regional museums are still worth visiting, as they can be real treasure troves. The focus is on everyday life in the former East Germany, and you could easily visit it and the much grimmer Stasi Museum Dresden in the same day.
Pirna-Sonnenstein Memorial (Aktion T4)
Before the Nazis set about systematically exterminating Europe’s Jews, they carried out a secret mass murder campaign – Aktion T4 – against people with various disabilities. They referred to these murders as ‘mercy killings’, which included lethal injections and gassing. Some perpetrators of these murders – including future commandant of Treblinka Franz Stangl – went on to work in the Nazi death camps in Poland. And one of the six psychiatric hospitals chosen as a killing centre was at Pirna-Sonnenstein.
Around 14,000 people were murdered there between 1940 and 1942, out of a documented total of over 70,000 across Germany. The site was later used as a school and factory, but the crimes only became known to the public after the fall of the East German Communist regime in 1989.
The Memorial is housed in the building where the murders took place, at Schlosspark 11, part of the Sonnenstein Castle complex. Seeing how hatred is spread so easily – and swiftly – online, it’s very much worthwhile to visit somewhere like this, or Nazi death camps such as Auschwitz or Terezin, to see where this hatred ultimately can lead.
Pirna City Museum
Pirna’s Museum is located in the former chapter house of the town’s Dominican monastery. The stone-vaulted interior makes a wonderful exhibition space, which tells the story of both the town and the Saxon Switzerland National Park on its doorstep.
Schloss Weesenstein
Weesenstein is one of the most surprising castles near Dresden, with a much lower profile than the palaces along the Elbe and in Saxon Switzerland.
The Castle, in the Müglitz Valley 7 km (4 miles) southwest of Pirna, is a seriously imposing Castle. It was initially a fortress, but adapted over time to become more of a fortified residence (under the von Bünau family), and later, a palace, when King Johann (John) of Saxony lived there.
It’s one of the best and most varied castles in the region to visit, with elements from all its major phases of building to see, with medieval cellars, a Baroque Chapel and opulent 19th-century apartments to explore.
Where Is Pirna
Pirna is located on the River Elbe, 17 kilometres (11 miles) southeast of Dresden, the capital of the eastern German state of Saxony.
It’s also 200 km (124 miles) south of Berlin, and 136 km (85 miles) north of the Czech capital, Prague.
How To Get To Pirna
Pirna is best reached via Dresden, unless you’re travelling by train from Prague, in which case it’s the stop before Dresden main station (Dresden Hbf).
The nearest major airports to Pirna are Berlin and Prague, and there is also the smaller regional airport at Dresden.
Trains from Berlin, Hamburg and most other major German cities regularly run to Dresden Hbf. Once there, the half-hourly S1 S-Bahn train runs to Pirna from platform 13 (its final destination is usually Bad Schandau).
Pirna can also be reached by bus from Dresden and surrounding towns, including the Saxon Switzerland National Park.
Where To Stay In Pirna
Pirn’scher Hof – Hotel Garni – highly recommended historic townhouse on the main square, a few steps from some of the main sights
Pension Donatus – lovely guesthouse in the old town, also very close to the Elbe River
Hotel Elbparadies – great hotel across the Elbe from the Old Town, front rooms have superb views of Pirna and Sonnenstein Castle
Things To Do In Pirna – Final Thoughts
I hope you’ve enjoyed my guide to Pirna, and that you manage to find some time to explore it as I did.It felt like I was the only tourist in town when I visited in the frigid depths of winter, but I found it one of the most intriguing places to visit in eastern Germany. It’s somewhere I’d like to visit in the summer, when the squares and streets are livelier and some of the museums are open more.
Pirna is also very close to some of the Dresden suburbs. Schloss Pillnitz is only a few miles further on, as is Loschwitz, a fascinating suburb with turn of the 20th century funicular and suspension railways giving you a wonderful taste of the Belle Epoque.
Dresden is a wonderful city to visit, and makes an excellent base for exploring Saxony and even the far north of the Czech Republic. Take a look at my guide to spending One Day In Dresden, and my guides to the Frauenkirche Dresden, Dresden Landmarks, Churches in Dresden and the Stasi Museum Dresden. My guide to travelling from Prague to Dresden may also prove useful if you’re planning to travel to the Dresden area from the Czech Republic – there are both quick and slow options to do so.
For more trip ideas in the region, take a look at my article on the Best Day Trips From Dresden and Best Places To Visit In Eastern Germany. I’ve also written guides to Meissen, Bautzen, Görlitz and Leipzig which may be useful too.
And finally, if you’re interested in exploring the Elbe Valley further, check out my source-to-sea guide to the best places to visit on the River Elbe.