Schloss Elsterwerda

En un regard

Le château en bref

In southern Brandenburg, on the Black Elster, Elsterwerda Castle replaces a fortress founded in the late 12th or early 13th century to control the crossing of the Dresden–Berlin trade road; it is mentioned in 1288. Held by the von Köckritz family until the 16th century, then by the von Maltitz and von Rohr families, it was rebuilt as a multi-winged complex by 1616. King Augustus the Strong acquired the estate in 1727 and had the castle transformed to plans by Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann; Johann Christoph Knöffel and Samuel Locke directed the works from 1730, producing the Baroque building still visible today, completed in 1737 with the outdoor staircase and the clock tower. A Saxon hunting and pleasure residence, then a Prussian teacher-training seminary from 1857, it has housed the Elsterschloss-Gymnasium since its complete restoration in 1995.