Fürstenberg Castle

Fürstenberg Castle is a three-winged Baroque building with Rococo decor in the Brandenburg town of Fürstenberg/Havel. It is located on an island north of the old town center, known as Mühlenkamp. It was built between 1741 and 1752 as the dower house for the Mecklenburg Duchess Dorothea Sophie.

Fürstenberg Castle was constructed as a two-story, plastered solid building with a gabled roof. The generous floor plan is based on the design of Mirow Castle. The side wings of the horseshoe-shaped complex enclose a courtyard of honor approximately 20 meters long and wide. The three-story central building is structured by smooth pilasters and decorated with fine stucco in Rococo forms. The crowning Baroque gable features the Mecklenburg coat of arms and the Danish Order of the Elephant.

The reigning Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Adolf Friedrich III, commissioned the court architect Christoph Julius Löwe to plan a new castle in Fürstenberg as a dower house for his wife Dorothea Sophie. The mills on the island were demolished in 1741 and rebuilt at the Havel bridge – in today's Bahnhofstraße. The castle was largely completed by 1750, allowing part of Dorothea Sophie's retinue, such as court councilors, chamberlains, and ladies-in-waiting, to move in. The Mühlenkamp behind the castle was transformed into a small park, and kitchen gardens were laid out on the other bank of the river. After Adolf Friedrich's death in 1752, Dorothea Sophie resided in the castle until her death in 1765. After her death, Fürstenberg Castle became a residence for retired ducal officials. Following the destruction of the town church by fire in 1807, church services were held in the castle hall for 41 years.

In 1910, the town of Fürstenberg acquired the castle. After its conversion into a sanatorium in 1913, the town leased the castle to the Imperial Insurance Office. With the outbreak of the First World War, a military hospital was established. After the war, it served as a sanatorium for patients with nervous and internal diseases. One of the patients in 1920 was the later German Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau. From July 1940, the castle was used as a recreation home by the Berlin Transport Company and later, during the Second World War, again as a military hospital.

After the war, a school for the children of officers of the Soviet garrison in the town was established in the castle. In 1953, the castle returned to German administration and was converted into a hospital with a polyclinic. From 1992 to 2004, it served as a nursing home for the Diakonisches Werk. In 2006, the town of Fürstenberg sold the complex to a private investor, who plans to establish a wellness hotel there and has begun initial restoration work.