Klaffenbach Castle

Klaffenbach Water Castle is located in the Klaffenbach district of the city of Chemnitz in the Free State of Saxony. The castle, situated not far from the Würschnitz river, was formerly also known as Neukirchen Castle. It represents a nearly unique example of a Renaissance water castle in Saxony.

In 1543, the wealthy Annaberg master minter Wolff Hühnerkopf bought Neukirchen and Klaffenbach, in addition to Burkhardtsdorf, from the Saxon Elector Johann Friedrich I, and had the castle built on their field boundaries between 1555 and 1560. The castle and the adjacent manor passed into the possession of the Barons, and since 1667 Counts, von Taube, who unsuccessfully tried to acquire city rights for their castle and estate. The castle came into bourgeois hands when a Schneeberg merchant acquired it in 1819. From 1926, the municipality of Klaffenbach owned the manor, and from 1934, also the castle. From 1935, the municipality used the castle complex for the Reich Labour Service, and from 1947 to 1989, as a youth workhouse for girls. During this time, the grounds fell into disrepair. Between 1991 and 1995, it was extensively renovated with the help of European funding. For several years now, concerts of various musical genres have regularly taken place in the castle. During the century flood of 2002 and the Würschnitz flood in August 2010, large areas of the buildings were submerged.