Mylau Castle

Mylau Castle was likely built around 1180 under Emperor Barbarossa as a seat of power to secure the settlement of the surrounding area by Frankish settlers. Under its protection, the market town of Reichenbach, among others, developed. The first lords of Milin were documented in 1214. Following the Vogtland War, Emperor Charles IV forced its sale to the Bohemian Crown in 1367. In the same year, he visited the castle, granted Mylau town rights, and established a royal Bohemian office. He and his sons, Wenceslaus IV and Sigismund, expanded the complex architecturally. Parts of the castle were destroyed in a feud in 1400, leading to the construction of two outer bailey areas. In 1422, Sigismund pledged the castle to the Saxon Electors in gratitude for their support in the Hussite Wars. With the exception of a brief period (1547-1569), it remained with Saxony. Under the Schönberg family, the castle transformed from a defensive fortress into a residential castle at the end of the 16th century. After being abandoned as a noble residence in 1772, it came into bourgeois ownership. From 1808 to 1828, it housed the first factory in the northern Vogtland. At the end of the 19th century, the castle was converted into a town hall, castle tavern, and museum in the Historicist style and has been in municipal ownership since 1892.