Neusorge Castle

The first documented mention of Zschöppichen as property of the Knights of Wolkenburg dates back to 1350, with it being referred to as a knight's seat in 1445. In the mid-15th century, it passed to the von Stockhausen family and later by inheritance to the von Schönberg family. They coined the name Neusorge and, after a fire, erected a Renaissance castle in 1579 in place of the original fortress. In 1610, Neusorge was sold to Elector Christian II of Saxony and came into the possession of the von Arnim family in 1689. General von Arnim had the Baroque castle complex built in 1720, but it was destroyed by a lightning strike and subsequent fire as early as 1745. Reconstruction, presumably based on designs by Johann Christoph Knöffel, began in 1751 but was delayed by the Seven Years' War and a change of ownership. Only by the late 1760s were the manor, the courthouse, the orangery, and the park completed. The castle itself, however, remained an unfinished shell and was temporarily used as a barn and distillery.