Rügen audio guide: the stories of its sights

Imagine a king so worn out by a sea battle that he simply called for a chair.

That is the story told about the Königsstuhl, the King's Chair, on the island of Rügen. It is a chalk cliff on the Stubbenkammer, in the Jasmund National Park, and it rises 118 metres above the Baltic Sea. The story goes that in 1715, King Charles XII of Sweden directed a naval battle against the Danes from this very spot. The fight is said to have tired him so much that he had a chair brought to him.

And so, the tale says, the cliff got its name. But there is a snag. A travel account from 1584 already used the name, written as "Konigsstuel". So the name is far older than that battle. Another legend goes back further still. In olden times, whoever first managed to climb the chalk cliff from the sea side and sit down on the chair was made king. Today around 300,000 people come here every year for the view over the Baltic and the white cliffs.

Since 2023 there has also been a skywalk at the Königsstuhl. It took two years to build and cost 11 million euros.

In 1168, a Danish king stormed a fortress at the northern tip of Rügen and destroyed the temple of a Slavic god.

Part of the site later fell into the sea. That place is Cape Arkona, a chalk and boulder-clay cliff, 43 metres high, on the Wittow peninsula. Here stood the Jaromarsburg, a stronghold of the Ranen, a Slavic tribe. From the 9th to the 12th century it was their sacred site, dedicated to their god Swantewit. The cliff protected it from the sea. On the landward side, a rampart 25 metres high guarded it.

When the sanctuary of Rethra was destroyed in 1068, Arkona took over its role as the religious centre of the Slavs of Mecklenburg. Then came King Waldemar I of Denmark. In 1168, as part of the Christianisation of the region, he took the stronghold and destroyed the temple. Parts of the site later tumbled into the sea. Today, almost only the rampart remains. The cape is now one of Rügen's most popular destinations, with around 800,000 visitors a year.

Two lighthouses stand here. The old one houses a branch of the registry office, so people can marry here. If couples wish, their marriage is recorded on a small plaque in the ground in front of the tower.

Before 1989, people on Rügen were told a remarkable story about Prora: that a submarine passage ran right underneath the island.

It was a rumour, and it was spread on purpose. Prora is a district of Binz, on the Baltic coast in the middle of the Prorer Wiek bay. It grew out of the KdF seaside resort Rügen, built between 1936 and 1939 and never finished. Up to 20,000 people were meant to holiday here at the same time. Later, the rumour proved useful. It helped the East German army, the NVA, to justify its military use of the site after the war.

Other things fed the theories too. The original plans were missing, and some of the cellars were flooded and could not be entered. Yet the sea itself speaks against it. About 500 metres from the shore, the water is less than 2 metres deep. Today the blocks are sold one by one, and since 2004 they have been turned into homes and hotels. Since 2010, a sand sculpture exhibition that changes every year has drawn several thousand visitors annually.

And in 2008, a high ropes course opened in the coastal woodland of the complex.

Sellin Pier was first planned as a jetty just 60 metres long, and it turned out to be far too small for the crowds who came.

That plan dates from 1901, in the Baltic resort of Sellin on the island of Rügen. So the pier grew. The first one opened in 1906, with a restaurant, and it stretched 508 metres out over the water. Then the trouble began. In 1918, pack ice damaged the structure. In 1920, a fire destroyed the pier head, the building at its seaward end. In 1924, moving ice damaged the pier again.

A newer pier took its place. But in the winter of 1941 to 1942, heavy ice largely destroyed that one too. Today, the pier is 394 metres long, the longest on the island. It has a restaurant near the beach, right over the water. And since 2008, it has also had a diving gondola, which takes you beneath the surface of the Baltic.