The little holiday resort of Seiffen lies 40km/25mi southeast of Chemnitz in the eastern Erzgebirge, below the south side of the Schwartenberg (788m/2,585ft).
Seiffen is the center of Saxony's toy industry. In addition to its wooden toys, it is also famed for its carved figures and a variety of other articles turned and carved from wood.
Seiffen has a charming little Baroque village church (1779), an octagonal structure on a centralized plan, with galleries round the beautifully decorated interior.
At Ernst-Thälmann-Strasse 73 in Seiffen is the Erzgebirge Toy Museum, which illustrates the development of the Seiffen toy industry and the life of the villagers, who turned from mining to this cottage industry.
Address: Erzgebirge Toy Museum, Ernst-Thälmann-Strasse 73, D-09548 Seiffen, Germany
Hours:
January 1 to December 31: 10am-5pm
Tips: Open until noon Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.
Opens at noon on New Year's day.
In a demonstration workshop at Bahnhofstrasse 12 in Seiffen visitors can watch the local craftsmen at work on the various processes of turning, carving and painting.
Address: Toy Museum, Bahnhofstrasse 12, D-09548 Seiffen, Germany
On the east side of Seiffen can be found the Erzgebirge Open-Air Museum, with a variety of old buildings, including a water-powered turning mill, giving an excellent impression of the life and work of the toy makers and other craftsmen of the Erzgebirge.
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