Top 13 Castles around Sandersdorf-Brehna

The Baroque Delitzsch Palace is located in the northern Saxon town of Delitzsch and is one of the oldest palaces in northwestern Saxony. The building and adjacent garden area are integrated into the planned historic district, through which a main road runs south of the palace grounds. Consisting of a manor house, a small northwestern wing, and a larger northeastern wing, it was constructed and architecturally modified in several phases. Only the foundations of the original building, dating from the early 12th century, remain. Among the oldest surviving parts are two deep cellars and the tower, which the Margrave of Meissen, William I, had built starting in 1389. Built on the foundations of a Gothic moated castle, the complex served the Wettin dynasty as an administrative and travel residence from 1387 to 1540. Subsequently, the Dukes and Electors of Saxony had the castle converted into a Renaissance palace from 1540 to 1558 and lived there during their travels. The complex was last externally altered at the end of the 17th century, giving it its Baroque appearance. From then on, the Principality of Saxe-Merseburg used it as a widow's residence and a travel residence. After a phased restoration beginning in 1993, the Baroque Delitzsch Palace is now used as a museum, tourist information center, registry office, branch of the "Heinrich Schütz" District Music School of North Saxony, a concert hall, and a national event venue. This cultural monument is owned by the district town of Delitzsch. Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Delitzsch

The first thing that catches the traveler's eye is the keep, perched atop a porphyry dome and visible from afar. Like the castle, it is privately owned. Together with the adjacent church (built in the 12th/13th century) and the castle, which has been converted into a palace, it dominates the entire townscape. Today, the local registry office is located there.

Beautiful, well-kept facility

View from the town centre to the old Hohenthurm Castle

The medieval use as a castle complex was followed by its function as an official residence, which can be proven at the latest in 1501.[5] From 1789/1790 to 1943, the district and local courts were housed here, and the dungeon was also located in the keep. After the Second World War, apartments were housed in the castle building from 1945 to 1951, and a special school was also set up.[10] Since 1951, the local history museum has been housed here, and today also the city archives and the city library (since 2019 the Zörbig Castle Culture Square). The tower tavern and exhibits are located in the stairwell. Open-air events such as the castle festival or the castle Christmas are also held here regularly. There are casemates beneath the complex.[11][12][13] The local history museum presents the entire historical development of the castle and town in 12 different rooms. A special exhibition is dedicated to the writer Victor Blüthgen, son of the city, whose literary legacy is maintained here, for example, with readings and art scholarships. A model of the castle can also be found in the exhibition. The collection comprises around 15,000 individual pieces. From 2020 to 2023, the museum is to be rebuilt and turned into an "integrated socio-cultural education and event center."[14][15] There are also rooms for citizens and clubs. In addition, in 1971 and 1972, a bunker with 30 rooms was set up under the castle for the civil defense staff of the then Bitterfeld district. Parts of the castle hill were excavated for this purpose.[16] Source https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Z%C3%B6rbig

The origins of the castle are thought to be a Slavic rampart, for which there is also archaeological evidence.[2] This became a German fortress in the 10th century at the latest and was first mentioned in 961 as civitas Zurbici. Since in the document the tithe of this castle ward is transferred by Otto I to the Mauritius monastery (Magdeburg), it must have existed before and it was therefore either an imperial castle or it belonged to the royal property. The castle itself came into the possession of the Wettins shortly afterwards, who owned it as a fief from the German emperors in the 11th century (confirmation e.g. in 1007) and acted as burgraves. It was probably also built to secure the old trade routes from Magdeburg to Leipzig and from Halle (Saale) to the northeast, which crossed here on the southern edge of the Fuhne floodplain. Thus, the castle was instrumental in the development of a place as a suburbium, where traders settled, which later developed into a town with a city wall and city gates (the Halle Tower was preserved), and the castle was part of its fortifications.[3] Even in 1156, Zörbig was still Wettin, because it passed to Friedrich I of Brehna during the division of inheritance between the sons of Conrad I.[4] The counts of Brehna were probably also the ones who expanded the castle.[5] In 1201, the castle ward included places between Plößnitz and Niemberg.[1] In the 13th century, the castle also became the property of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg (successor to the Moritz Monastery) when Zörbig was ceded to it by the Magdeburg burgrave Burchard of Querfurt in 1242. It is not known when he came into possession of it. In the middle of the 14th century, the Wettins bought Zörbig back, this time it became part of the Margraviate of Meissen. With the division of Leipzig in 1485, Zörbig came into the possession of the Albertine line. From 1657, it belonged to the Saxe-Merseburg branch, in which it formed the Zörbig office. At times, this secundogeniture formed another called Saxe-Merseburg-Zörbig, because August of Saxe-Merseburg-Zörbig chose the castle as his residence, which he received when his father Christian divided his inheritance. He had lived in Mecklenburg until then, moved to Zörbig in 1692 and had the castle expanded into a palace from 1694 onwards.[6] However, August died before it was completed, so in 1715 the castle became the widow's residence for August's wife Hedwig Eleonore of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and her only surviving daughter Caroline Auguste by Moritz Wilhelm of Saxe-Merseburg, as August's sons had died 20 years before him. The long-term construction activity suggests that the castle was badly damaged in the Thirty Years' War and only existed as a ruin, as the actual expansion of the castle began in 1656 with modernizations and resulted in the creation of a castle garden in 1662 southeast of the complex.[5][7] Source https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Z%C3%B6rbig

The Cösitz manor (also Cösitz Castle or Cösitz Manor) In the year 750, there was already a Sorbian rampart on the site of today's manor, which was mentioned in documents in 839 when it was conquered by the Saxons. From 1370 to the middle of the 16th century, the complex was the ancestral seat of the Kositz family. After the plague of 1636 and pillage by Swedish troops in the Thirty Years' War, the village and the manor were desolate. In 1877, the rampart of the castle was demolished, which later enabled the construction of the east wing of the building. The building known today as the castle was built on behalf of Hubert Freiherr von dem Bussche-Lohe and his wife Jeannette von Wuthenau in 1891. The west wing was built in 1937, as was the English landscape park. The design for the new wing was drawn up by the retired senior building inspector and architect Hans Volkmann. The Baron had already had a small living space extension to the building planned by the man from Halle in 1933/34. It remained in the von dem Bussche family until it was put up for auction in 1945. In recent years, the manor has been renovated and apartments have been built. In the landscape park there is still a beech tree with a trunk diameter of six meters and a crown of 38 meters, making it one of the thickest beech trees in Germany. Remnants of the ramparts up to five meters high have been preserved. Source: Wikipedia

☆ When I arrived... on Saturday 2024 all entrances were closed... what a pity 🙈