10 h 12 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 10 h 12 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Beyond the grey town walls, Saxony opens into forests where landscapes and old stories meet.
In From Grey Walls and Green Horizons, Gustav Riess explores Saxony on foot, moving between old towns and open country. Fortifications, churches and market squares give the journey its stone setting. Beyond them lie woods and paths, inviting a slower kind of attention.
This travel book belongs to the German tradition of wandering literature, where what the eye sees meets the stories people tell. Riess brings travel and folklore together in the German heartland. Hills, rivers and ruined castles form the landscape around which legends, spirits and tales of hidden treasure gather.
What you’ll discover
- Stone and open sky Explore the contrast between Saxony's enclosed old towns and the green horizons beyond their walls.
- The pace of walking Discover a way of travelling that leaves room to notice places rather than hurry past.
- Forests rich in folklore Enter a landscape where woods, hills and rivers carry stories as well as scenery.
- A heartland in view Meet Saxony through its towns and countryside, with centuries of history close at hand.
- An earlier Saxony Encounter a view of the region from before 1932, before the changes that follow.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this book if you love walking tours of old towns, chronicles and legends, mining history, folk art and Christmas customs, or a guide who speaks warmly of his home.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Learn to see the beauty of labor
- Strong walls need steadfast hearts behind them
- The Thirty Years War tested every citizen
- Fifty days of siege made a heroic story
- The town hall holds justice, fear and records
- A tower finial speaks of ordinary people
- Old sayings carry the wisdom of ordinary makers
- The cathedral is a sermon in stone
- Walks outward show forests, heaps and legends
- Fortress, toys and Christmas end the journey
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From Grey Walls and Green Horizons
by Gustav Riess
A Swedish army of thousands attacks a small mining town, and its citizens stand as a living wall in the breach.
Challenging5–10 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
What does it take to love a town that offers no pretty postcard view? Gustav Riess opens with a bicycle trip to Rothenburg, then turns to Freiberg in Saxony, a mining town of slag heaps and plain gables that asks for another kind of looking.
From Grey Walls and Green Horizons at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 50 min5 h 25 min fast, 8 h 5 min slow
- Length
- 97,400 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Learn to see the beauty of labor
Riess begins with advice on how to arrive. Do not step off the train into the dull station road. Climb the slope above the Mulde Valley and look at the town from outside.
From there the view is not a fairy-tale skyline. It is black slag walls, smoking chimneys and spoil heaps that rise like cliffs. Riess calls this the romance of labor, the poetry of people who went underground and carried silver to the light. Beside the green rampart walk lies the Donat Cemetery, built in 1531 because plague was filling the churchyards.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 40 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Riess, Gustav. From Grey Walls and Green Horizons. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/from-grey-walls-and-green-horizons.
Riess, G. (2026). From grey walls and green horizons. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/from-grey-walls-and-green-horizons
Riess, Gustav. From Grey Walls and Green Horizons. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/from-grey-walls-and-green-horizons.
@book{riess2026from,
author = {Riess, Gustav},
title = {From Grey Walls and Green Horizons},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/from-grey-walls-and-green-horizons}
}
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What is From Grey Walls and Green Horizons about?
It is a collection of walking essays about Freiberg in Saxony and nearby places, including the Tharandt Forest, Königstein fortress and the toy village of Seiffen. Riess blends history, legend, art and landscape to describe what home means.
Who were Torstensson and Peter Schmohl?
Torstensson was the Swedish general who besieged Freiberg for fifty days in 1642 and 1643. Peter Schmohl was the town lieutenant who defended the most dangerous gate, and Riess remembers him through a tower stump, a ring and a cup.
Who was Kunz von Kaufungen?
Kunz von Kaufungen was the knight who took two Saxon princes from Altenburg Castle in July 1455 during a quarrel with their father. Freiberg's court judged him, and he was beheaded in the market square, where a black stone marks the place.
The author
Gustav Riess
1871–1932 · Writer
Gustav Riess was a German architect and writer who worked for the city of Freiberg in Saxony, and he died in 1932. In this book he speaks as a builder who restored and planned houses there. He wrote with a deep love for the Saxon mining country, its history, its old buildings and its folk crafts.
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