Plattenburg Castle

Plattenburg Castle was first documented in 1319 when Bishop Reiner of Havelberg acquired it from Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg. In 1548, the castle became the 7th Prignitz district. After the death of the last Havelberg Bishop, Busso II., Elector Joachim II of Brandenburg, who had recently converted to the Lutheran faith, had his son Friedrich IV elected bishop in 1551. A year later, in 1552, the preacher Joachim Ellefeld, who had burned the Wilsnack Holy Blood Hosts, was imprisoned at Plattenburg. Elector Joachim II pledged the castle to his chamberlain Matthias von Saldern, who received it as an hereditary fief in 1560. Around 1600, Burchard von Saldern expanded the upper castle in the Late Renaissance style. During the Thirty Years' War, King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden issued a letter of protection for the Plattenburg lordship in 1631. Later, Burchard von Saldern established a new castle chapel in the bakehouse and brewery. In 1675, the castle was besieged by Swedish troops. The half-timbered wing was built in 1724 under the architect Johann Jakob Müller. A fire destroyed the brick tower in 1883, which was rebuilt much higher under Siegfried von Saldern.