Jungfernbastei (1589-93)

The Jungfernbastei, or Virgin Bastion, forms the eastern edge of the Brühlsche Terrasse, rising directly from the banks of the Elbe River. Built between fifteen eighty-nine and fifteen ninety-three as part of the city’s defensive fortifications, the site evolved into a site of scientific breakthrough. Within its deep, stone-walled casemates—often referred to as the Vulcan’s Caves—the alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger and the scientist Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus worked in the early eighteenth century.