Dölitz Castle

The Dölitz manor came into the possession of the Leipzig merchant family von Winckler in 1636 when Georg Winckler acquired, renovated, and rebuilt it. He was ennobled in 1650. The gatehouse, still standing today, was erected between 1670 and 1672 under Andreas von Winckler, Georg's son. Originally, the castle was a three-story, four-winged complex with an inner courtyard and a roof turret. During the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, the gatehouse was contested; Austrian troops repeatedly failed to storm the complex defended by the French. In 1929, the city of Leipzig acquired the manor. Damage from an air raid in World War II led to the demolition and removal of the main building in 1947. A barn fell victim to a fire in 1953, but the gatehouse was saved. From 1959, restoration work was carried out, during which traces of the Battle of Leipzig also disappeared under new plaster, only to be partially uncovered again in the 1990s.