The northernmost point of Rügen, Cape Arkona is a windy, atmospheric headland with two lighthouses, a Cold War bunker, and the remains of the Slavic fortress of Jaromarsburg falling slowly into the sea. The 45-metre chalk cliffs are eroding fast — the ramparts of the old fort have already lost most of their inland edge.
The small, square Schinkel lighthouse from 1827 (designed by the Berlin architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel) sits beside the taller new lighthouse from 1902. Both can be climbed. A short walk through the headland's heath leads to the cliff edge and the Slavic fort, and further on, down a steep staircase, to the fishing village of Vitt — fourteen reed-thatched houses around a tiny harbour.
Cars are kept at Putgarten and visitors walk or take a tractor-train to the cape itself. Allow at least half a day.