Stolpen Castle is a small castle that sits upon a mound of basalt, throne-like and towering over the countryside outside of Dresden, Germany. Stolpen provides a gateway into the German national park of Saxon Switzerland. This castle was the site which the Saxon-educated university professor Georgius Agricola referred to in his first reference to a stone type he had named "basalt".
Therefore, the mountain under Stolpen castle is the original source for the use of the term basalt worldwide.
