Stavenow Castle

Stavenow is the oldest part of the municipality of Karstädt and was first mentioned in a document in 1252, where a knight Gerhard von Stavenow was named as a witness in a document of Margrave Otto III. It is to be assumed that there was already a moated castle in this historically interesting place in the 13th century.

The Stavenow lordship, which had existed since the 14th century, was subject to Mecklenburg suzerainty and passed to the noble family von Quitzow in the 15th century, who were followed by the von Blumenthals. After the destruction of the Thirty Years' War in 1649, the von Blumenthals had the estate rebuilt. In 1700, the medieval castle was rebuilt. At the beginning of the 18th century, the von Kleists were the owners of Stavenow. From 1809 to 1819, State Minister Otto Karl Friedrich Voss took over the lordship of Stavenow. His successor Count Carl Otto Friedrich von Voss had the manor house rebuilt around 1850 by the then very famous architect August Stüler (1800 – 1865).

Due to a large fire in 1945, Stavenow Castle lost much of its former appearance. The castle burned out and was demolished except for the south wing and a remnant of the west wing. The almost one meter thick outer walls, which reach a thickness of about two meters in the tower area, may still originate from the late medieval Quitzow Castle. The walls of the cellar are made of fieldstones and the barrel vaults are built of large-format bricks. The park entrance is marked by two gate pillars with canopy-like terracotta lantern tops. Stavenow Castle was one of the most important castles in the Prignitz, as it was located directly on the old military and trade route from Perleberg to Lübeck. It led via Plattenhof and Nebelin to Stavenow Castle, further via Dargardt, Sargleben and Warnow to Grabow. Until 1990, the castle was used as a children's holiday camp. After that, it stood empty for a long time and has been in private ownership since 1998. Today you can spend your holidays and also get married at Stavenow Castle.