Old Castle Penzlin

The Old Castle Penzlin is located in the town of Penzlin, southwest of Neubrandenburg in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Around 1220, the German settlement of the area around present-day Penzlin took place, and presumably the construction of the castle, which subsequently became the secondary residence of the Princes of Werle. From 1501, the castle was the ancestral seat of the von Maltzahn family. The witch cellars were installed starting in 1560. As a result of the Thirty Years' War, the castle gradually fell into disrepair and had been uninhabitable since the 18th century. The Lords of Maltzan therefore built a new residence, the New Castle, above the Old Castle in 1810. In 1941, the Old Castle was sold by the Barons of Massenbach to the town of Penzlin, which subsequently used the castle for residential purposes and as a museum (on witch hunts in Mecklenburg). Since 1990, the Old Castle Penzlin has been extensively renovated. It can be visited unguided; the interiors and the witch cellar only in conjunction with a museum visit.