Georgium Castle

Georgium Palace is located in the Ziebigk district of Dessau-Roßlau in the Georgengarten, which extends to the Elbe. It is one of the central complexes of the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz.

Johann Georg Prince of Anhalt-Dessau (1748–1811) had a classical summer house built in the early 1780s. Friedrich Wilhelm von Erdmannsdorff created the two-story rectangular building with Tuscan pilasters, a flat central risalit, triglyph frieze, gable triangle, hip roof and belvedere based on an English country house model. In 1893–96, two side wings were added as the widow's residence for Hereditary Princess Elisabeth of Anhalt (1861–1955).

Schoch and Eyserbeck designed a 21-hectare landscape park with sightlines and follies; to the north, the 97-hectare Beckerbruch adjoins. The guesthouse, Ionic round temple, gatehouse fragments, the monument to Prince Franz, the artificial ruin Wallwitzburg and the Elbe Pavilion have been preserved.

After the monarchy, the palace went to the Free State of Anhalt. In the GDR it was a Pioneer House, since 1959 the seat of the Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie (Amalienstiftung 1793). War losses and Soviet removals were only partially compensated in 1958/59. The Palais Reina had been destroyed in World War II.

2015 Red List Culture (Category 2); renovation from 2017, reopening 2023. Around 1,800 paintings and over 18,000 works on paper (Cranach the Elder, Tischbein, Dürer, Kandinsky). UNESCO World Heritage since 2000; still a museum.