About the location
The ruins of the Oybin castle and monastery stand atop the 514-meter-high mountain of the same name. The histories of both buildings are closely intertwined. The first Bronze Age fortifications date to 1100 BC and were gradually expanded over the centuries. Kaiser Karl IV built the Kaiserhaus in 1364 and only two years later construction on the monastery church began. The Reformation led to the closing of the monastery in the early 16th century. A lightning strike and fires severely damaged both castle and monastery in 1577, and 100 years later a rockslide struck the walls of the uninhabited buildings. Caspar David Friedrich, Carl Blechen, Carl Gustav Carus, and numerous other painters were fascinated by the ruined structures and the picturesque landscape, which led in the course of the nineteenth century to a new appreciation of Oybin’s mystical atmosphere of decay and continuity, of history and transcendence: a perfect setting for the story of this ancient Kunqu opera.