Wartenburg Castle

The foundation stone for Wartenburg Castle was laid in 1663. In 1769, Baron von Hohenthal acquired the property. The site gained prominence through the Battle of Wartenburg on October 3, 1813, when Prussian troops under Field Marshal Blücher forced Napoleon's army to retreat across the Elbe. This strategic defeat was crucial for the later victory of the Allies in the Battle of Leipzig. In early October 1813, the castle served as the Allied headquarters for three days, where Blücher, Generals Gneisenau and York, and Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, among others, stayed. In 1920, Count Peter von Hohenthal bought the estate from his brother. A year later, in 1921, a wing of the originally square-shaped building was demolished. Towards the end of World War II, the count's family fled from the Red Army. In 1946, the castle was nationalized by the Soviet occupation forces and, by order of the President of the Province of Saxony, converted into a reformatory.