Top 5 Castles around Dommitzsch

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This was the training ground for the mass murderers of the National Socialist concentration camp system. A place to commemorate the worst crimes.

The castle is well worth seeing

As the complex was used as an orphanage from 1829 onwards, only a few pieces of the original furnishings remain in the building. These include ornamented consoles dating from 1574, a stucco ceiling from 1720 or 1727 and some studded doors. The local museum has three panels from a wooden ceiling of the castle decorated with arabesque paintings on display. These are dated to 1574. The local museum also has a cast-iron stove plate with a view of Dresden. Another stove from the castle is now in the Luther Room of the Luther House in Wittenberg. Castle Park Sandstone portal of Pretzsch Castle The design of the castle park, which was laid out in 1702 and designed as a baroque pleasure garden, probably comes from Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann. From 1727 onwards, the unfinished park was used as an orchard and kitchen garden. The formerly elongated park buildings are now only preserved in remnants. These are single-storey solid buildings that framed the garden areas. The four buildings, which now stand alone, were originally connected in pairs in the middle by pavilions and served as a habitable garden house and orangery. Of the sculptures that were once in the park, only a sandstone putto in a jester's costume playing the flute has survived. There are sandstone portals to the park at the former pier on the Elbe and at the entrance from the city to the castle courtyard. In 1798, it was converted into a landscape park.[4] Source https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Pretzsch

The castle is a plastered brick building in the style of the Saxon Renaissance, which was expanded and rebuilt in the Dresden Baroque era. Its current appearance dates from around 1700, when the attic was also expanded. The castle complex, originally surrounded by moats, consists of two wings and has three floors. To the west is a two-story gatehouse with a two-part Doric column portal. The columns stand on diamond-cut pedestals. The coats of arms of the then builder Hans Löser and his wife Agnes von Bünau are attached between winged putti. In the middle of this is the alliance coat of arms of Wolf Christoph von Arnim and Catharina Dorothea, née Countess von Hoym, dating from 1647. A square staircase tower is located between the north and east wings. A building inscription is attached above the entrance to the tower. Source https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Pretzsch

In 1380, a new castle was built on the old castle site, of which no visible remains can be found today. Under Hans Löser, a two-wing Renaissance palace was built in place of the castle between 1571 and 1574. At the end of the Thirty Years' War, which the building survived almost unscathed, the complex was sold to Wolf Christoph von Arnim in 1647. His sons exchanged the property with the then Elector Johann Georg III for three knight's estates in 1689. Queen-Electress Christiane Eberhardine (1671–1727) From 1694 until her death in 1696, the castle was the seat of the widow of Johann Georg IV, Eleonore of Saxony-Eisenach, who lived here with her three children from her first marriage. Her brother-in-law, August the Strong, gave the castle to his wife Christiane Eberhardine as a dowry in 1697, after the birth of the Elector Prince Friedrich August. Christiane Eberhardine, who did not accept the change of religion of her husband and later of her son, lived from then on mostly at Pretzsch Castle. In the solitude of Pretzsch she devoted herself to works of charity and an ascetic existence in order to atone for what she saw as the injustice of her house.[1] Fearing that the Saxons would be re-Catholicized, she had Protestant prayer books printed and distributed free of charge. In the eyes of her subjects she became the keeper of the Lutheran faith.[2] Until her death in 1727, numerous construction projects were carried out on the castle complex. Until 1717 her mother-in-law Anna Sophie, also a devout Protestant, with whom she got on well, lived together with her sister Wilhelmine Ernestine of the Palatinate, a few kilometers up the Elbe at Lichtenburg Castle. From 1783 the castle served as the residence of the then chief forester and gamekeeper. From 1829 to 1923, the building was used as a girls' orphanage and was part of the Great Military Orphanage in Potsdam. After that, the castle was used as an organ and harmonium factory, a restaurant and accommodation for spa guests at the mud bath. During the Second World War, it served as a border police school until 1941, then as a military hospital and reception camp for resettlers. A children's home has been located here since 1947.[3] Source https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Pretzsch

The first mention of a castle as the center of an administrative district dates back to 965/1004, although the document from 965 is considered a suspected forgery. Trebitz was part of a chain of 19 castle wards on the middle Elbe, with whose help the East Elbian colonization was to be secured under Emperor Otto I (912-973). Until 1290, the castle and office of Trebitz belonged to the County of Brehna. After the local counts died out, Trebitz came to Electorate of Saxony. In 1290, Rudolf I of Saxony was enfeoffed with the County of Brehna by King Rudolf I of Habsburg, his grandfather. This created a contiguous territory. Wittenberg, now centrally located, developed into the capital of the Duchy of Saxony, which now stretches from Fläming to Liebenwerda. Source https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trebitz_(Bad_Schmiedeberg)

Insider tip! The late medieval Klöden Castle is one of the oldest in Saxony-Anhalt and has undergone all sorts of renovations and changes of ownership. “Landlord” Thomas Petzold is chairman of the support association that has owned the castle since 2005. He is committed to maintaining them, while his wife Sylke runs the small castle restaurant with a beer garden. Over the years, the friendly couple have catered to cycling and hiking tourists and have gained a real fan base with a lovingly run restaurant, a replica torture cellar and the unique local museum.