Cape Arkona

The protected landscape of Cape Arkona, together with the fishing village of Vitt, belongs to the municipality of Putgarten and is one of the most popular tourist destinations on Rügen, receiving about 800,000 visitors annually.

On the cape there are two lighthouses, a navigation tower, two military bunker complexes, the Slavic temple fortress of Jaromarsburg and several tourist buildings (restaurants, pubs and souvenir shops).

Directly at the foot of the Gellort is a 165-ton glacial erratic boulder known as the Siebenschneiderstein (Low German: Söbenschniedersteen).

The smaller of the two lighthouses was built of brick in 1826/27 based on plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and taken into service in 1828.

From 1911 to 1925, attempts were made - which were ground-breaking for that time - to improve navigation for the Sassnitz-Trelleborg railway ferry, established in 1909, using the emission of radio waves.

The temple located within the ramparts grew in importance as a religious centre for the Slavs of Mecklenburg after the destruction of Rethra in 1068.

At the tip of Arkona in recent centuries, the cliffs have repeatedly collapsed into the sea, with the result that only the ramparts of the Jaromarsburg are still visible today.

Several metres west of Cape Arkona is the Königstreppe ("King's Staircase"), whose 230 steps climb up the 42-metre-high cliff 230.

The Swedish king, Frederick I – Rügen then belonged to Sweden – had a daymark erected near the present-day steps during the Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743) in order to warn the population.

South of the remnants of the ramparts at Jaromarsburg are the Veilchentreppe ("Violet Staircase"), a descent to the beach that runs from Arkona to Vitt.

The smaller, older bunker dates from Wehrmacht times and, in GDR days, housed an outpost of the 6th (Coastal) Border Brigade.

The larger, newer bunker was built from 1979 to 1986 and acted as a command post for the Sixth Flotilla, stationed on Bug, and the Baltic Fleet (VOF).

Starting from a main central tunnel with two entrances, there are several autonomous individual bunkers with a total area of 2,000 square metres.

From 1986, 50–70 soldiers of the Volksmarine ("People's Navy") were on duty here for two to three days, three to four times a year, as part of naval exercises.

The train is hauled by a tractor designed to look like a steam locomotive but since 1996 has actually been powered by a more environmentally-friendly gas engine.

Ships operated by the Reederei Ostsee-Tour also run daily from Binz and Sassnitz to Cape Arkona.